Sequence of Rythms
by turtlbrdr
Summary: Normal is a word you wouldn't place in the Vocaloid house; and when a prank by Neru goes awry it sets off a chain of events and stories that will span several years


Happy Neru's Birthday everyone! November 1st! And it had better be or this intro will be pretty fricken embarrassing, I mean it's on my calendar; I have a calendar for this shit. Hopefully you're not too overfull from the candy you've gotten, but if your currently sick from that...well actually, I got nothing for that…But anyway…

Recently, I've gotten into music like any of you wouldn't believe. And this has me paying more attention to the Vocaloid series. This "collection" is going to include a main story line (generally laid out in chapter's I will call sequences, they will be upwards of at least 8000+ words), and several short stories that branch and add to the main story.

Sorry for taking your time if you're still reading this. This won't be included in any other chapter. However, before every story, I will, in bold, list unordinary objectionable content in case there are certain people who do not wish to view that material. Also appearing here, for the first time (if your one of my regular readers (thanks again for being so) you might notice it), I have numbered by line breaks now, so that you may drop off at a line break remember the number and pick it back up later, and it is vital now due to the size of this chapter.

I rated this story "M" because I really don't feel like being concerned for whether or not I can use any certain curse word in a "T" story, that and it allows me to present a graphic depiction of life. I won't be aiming for full sexual content, but if I dig myself that hole I'm not going to ruin both of our days by climbing out before I'm done. So if that's what you're strictly here for, don't get your hopes up (sees one or two people leaving); however, you might be able to look forward to it. If this is included I will mention it in the objectable's space.

Oh, one last thing. Ah-hem…If I owned Vocaloid…well, god what do I say…to whom would I owe the honor? I'd make an anime, manga, and comics. But I don't. I'm a dirt-poor college student, who lives in his mom's basement. I don't own anything but my car, which I'll be paying for for the entirety of forever. Furthermore, I don't own any rights to Crypton, or any other of the studios/companies involved in making Vocaloid. Neither do I own any rights to any products mentioned or otherwise hinted to. Not that I'd get why they'd come after me anyway; free advertising, right?

* * *

><p><strong>This sequence does not contain any noteworthy unordinary objectionable content.<strong>

_Story Length: 29080 words_

_Read Time Approx.: 95 minutes to 165 minutes_

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><p>Sequence 1: Attack on Peace<p>

Rin Kagamine was currently fixing herself to go to bed for the night, the only thing left on her agenda was to brush her teeth. She quietly took the white tube and squeezed a fair amount onto her toothbrush. However, as she began to brush her teeth she immediately noticed a drastic change in the normally peppermint taste of her toothpaste. Suddenly, she felt her mouth heating up and in an instant her mouth was on fire. Rin immediately spit out the laced toothpaste; however, the damage was done and the amalgamation of the toothpaste and the mystery additive were a combination as destructive as that of a lawnmower next to a nest of bees. Even the split second reaction to gargle the water she had at hand had no effect on the spicy conflagration currently roasting her mouth.

The next thing Meiko, Luka, and Miku knew was that Rin had just run by and was now tearing at the refrigerator and was now deftly scrambling to get to a glass of milk while her eyes shed pained tears. While, Luka and Miku immediately rushed to Rin to see what was wrong, Meiko instead realized what happened and started laughing.

"Oh, Man ! She totally got you with that!" Meiko laughed out, rising a bit off the couch she was henceforth relaxed into. This caused Rin to respond after she had gargled with a cup of milk.

"What the hell you mean 'she' got me with it. What the hell's going on?" Rin shouted off, yelling with such volume that the culprit behind the act was able to definitively note that her plot had succeeded.

"Oh, man. Neru pulled that on me a couple of days ago! She put Tabasco sauce in my toothpaste and I called her on it 'cause I could smell it." Meiko explained, still laughing heartily. "She said it was hilarious, but I didn't think how it could be until now." Immediately it became apparent that the only reason as to why Meiko was able to finish her explanation was because that Rin was guzzling down another glass of milk.

"Ugh, figures it'd be Neru." Rin yelled before collecting another glass of milk before she started for across the living room to return to her bedroom. However, before she mounted the stairs, she turned to all three of the other ladies. "That dumb bitch, seriously, why do we have to let her stay here? All she does is screw us over."

Before anyone else was able to reply to that assertion however, Rin had gone up the stairs to return to her bedroom.

"Jeez, I know Neru has a habit of pulling pranks on people, but really it breaks up the monotony around here, you know?" Meiko stated, relaxing into the couch again.

"Yeah, that and I don't think she's ever done anything really bad either…" Miku added, putting her finger to her chin in a visible attempt at thought.

"Especially considering how much stuff she knows about us…just think of the stuff she could do…" Meiko waxed, slightly shivering at the thought.

**Line Break 1**

The conversation up in the Kagamine's room was much different than the one in the living room. At this point it was a one-person rant than a conversation.

"God damn it, I can't believe that bitch. She thinks she's so above you because she can get off on screwing around with people. Well, guess what, I'm going to get her-"

"Well good god Rin, can't you just let it go?" Len replied, playing his PSP; he was well used to his sister's ranting by now, having had to put up with them for at least the past year.

"No. Bullshit, so she can pull shit on me and get away with it? I'm going to pull shit on her. And I'm not going to be graceful about it." Rin yelled out, finally getting into her bed after turning on her lamp and turning off the main room light.

"Yeah, well the difference between your pranks and her pranks are that your's always have a tendency to get people seriously hurt." Len replied, pushing buttons more slowly now, it looked as though he was saving the game he was playing.

"Screw you, so I'm not hurt? I just downed like two glasses of milk and my mouth is still burning!" Rin yelled, however causing Len to reply.

"Whatever." Len muttered as her put his PSP in his nightstand drawer.

"Y-you bastard, how dare you!" Rin yelled, raising her fist in an attempt at intimidating her brother as he got out of his bed and gathered his blanket and pillow.

"Where the hell are you going?" Rin demanded as Len walked past her bed and towards the door.

"I'm not telling you, if I do I'll have to sleep with an eye open tonight. Miss Insecurity." Len finished, maintaining his relatively cool demeanor throughout; after walking out the door, he shut it again before Rin could once again called him a bastard. Though, she still cursed at him under her breath once he had left.

After leaving his bedroom, Len went downstairs into the living room to find Miku still up, watching some kind of anime. Calling out to her had the effect of making the teal-haired girl jump literally a foot out of her seat.

"Ah, Len. What are you doing down here?" Miku asked, blushing lightly while turning down the volume on the flat-screen the show was currently visible on.

"Ah, I was just…" Len began, before his thoughts caught up to him. "Hey, Miku. Do you think I could sleep in your room again tonight? Rin's being a sociopath again."

"Um…" Miku voiced, putting her finger to her chin as she thought through the contents of her room and how they were strewn about. "…Sure I don't think that'll be much of a problem."

"Thanks, I pretty much got out of there at the right time. I'm fairly sure Rin would try to kill me if I went back in there. I don't mind sleeping on the floor either, if you want." Len replied as Miku turned off the TV.

"Oh, that's alright. You can sleep on the other side of my bed. And I'll make sure to lock the door when we get in there. Just let me change first, alright?" Miku said. Getting up and heading towards the stairs.

"Sure, go ahead, I'll just stick down her until you're done." Len replied, moving aside as Miku slipped by, the tealette smiling lightly as she did.

Miku had a double bed in her room, as did everyone else who didn't share a room. Len and Rin decided to get one together because of their mutual sibling friendship for each other. However, even the 'Perfect Twins' had their arguments, and as of late, Rin had definitely taken a turn for the worst attitude-wise. Even Len wasn't safe from her anymore and at least two nights out of the week he had to ask one of the other Vocaloids if he could sleep in their rooms, and always made sure they locked their door when he did. He wasn't too afraid of his sister doing something, but then again, if there's a worse way to wake up then your sister slashing at your neck, Len is open to suggestions.

More than likely the person to take him in was Miku. Who didn't mind letting Len sleep in the other half of the bed she only used half of to begin with. In fact, one could argue that Miku became a slightly better person because of Len's plight. She started cleaning her room, at first only to conceal her underwear collection; however, she quickly started cleaning the rest of her room once it became more than an occasion. However, Len also made sure to help her at other things when she needed it, to pay her back for helping him.

"Hey, Len I'm done." Miku called from the top of the stairs, causing Len to come up to the twin-tail's room. As he entered the room Miku closed the door behind him. Len took the time to notice Miku's pajamas, a simple pink shirt with a matching pair of sweats "So Rin's being weird again?"

"Yeah, she's none too happy about Neru's prank." Len replied. Setting his pillows on Miku's light-blue themed bed spread while setting his blanket on the floor.

"I'd imagine not, but…she really overreacts to everything." Miku explained, turning on one of her table-lamps before turning off her main room light via remote.

"I know. I think- no, I know her problem is she's insecure about something. I mean, other than the fact that she doesn't let anything go anymore, like she's got something to prove to someone or some shit, she's been incredibly possessive of her stuff recently." Len explained as he slipping under Miku's blanket.

"Well, then again you guys are reaching that point in your lives…when people mature. When hormones make people do weird things. I remember when I started going through that myself. I feel lucky I had my mom around when I did; she was so considerate of my emotions when I needed her. Maturing is definitely something you don't want to go through alone. Rin's probably going through something like that, and you've changed too; but it definitely seems that you got the better end of that stick." Miku said as she herself slipped under the blanket of her bed.

"I've changed?" Len asked; not so oblivious to the changes he had gone though as he was curious as to what Miku had to say about them.

"Sure, putting aside Rin for a minute, you've started acting a lot more mature recently." Miku explained turning out her table lamp and setting down into her bed. Quietly, she giggled before continuing. "Actually, if you don't mind me saying, it's rather nice. We might actually have another sane mind in this house." This made Len chuckle in agreement.

"Though, you're still going to go through a lot more." Miku waxed, as she turned towards Len. "Hey, if you ever need to talk to someone, I'm here to help. I can't help you with…some of the things that you'll be dealing with, but if you need to talk to someone you can share stuff with me. Especially, when- oh hey." Miku offered, before apparently having some kind of revelation mid-sentence. "Do you think Rin might be falling in love with someone?"

"Huh?" Len replied, obviously confused with Miku's supposition.

"I mean maybe she's trying to stand out to catch the eye of someone or something." Miku elaborated. Len thought for a bit about it, apparently unnerving Miku enough to continue. "Or maybe not. Though speaking of such is there anyone you like Len?"

"Well, um…not really." Len said rather reservedly meanwhile fixing his gaze elsewhere, surprised at Miku's turnaround.

"Oh, come on Len. There must be someone you like." Miku pressed, but after a few seconds of silence she continued: "Well, whoever it is I hope they treat you well." Miku said.

After finally saying their goodnights, both Len and Miku fell asleep rather quickly. And both slept rather soundly. Having completed another concert a few days before, nearly everyone who lived in the main Vocaloid house –Meiko, Kaito, Miku, Rin, Len, Luka, Gumi, Neru, and Haku- were still relaxing in the post-concert afterglow of a job well done.

The only one not present in the feelings was Haku, who couldn't sing, and wouldn't attend the concerts for the most part. Still Haku was a rather skilled string-instrument player, specifically the guitar; though it was also anyone's' guess how she became so skilled, and another one how she retained her skill though her nightly binge-drinks. Which is where she could be found at a few moments prior. Currently however, she was drunkenly-stumbling towards the Vocaloid's household. Rather humorously she bumped her head on front door as she was attempting to put the key in the house's door.

After relieving herself of both her coat and a significant portion of the beer she had ingested earlier, Haku slowly made her way up the stairs to her bedroom. However any person not as intoxicated as Haku would have notice that she went into Neru's room. Also, with the number of times that Haku had done such and had to be dragged out each morning, one would think the white-haired woman would at least take care to remember where her room was. It got more pathetic when one also considered that Haku's room was right next to Neru's, just one door further down the hall from the second floor staircase.

Haphazardly, Haku discarded her jeans on Neru's floor and slowly sauntered over to Neru's bed where it's owner currently slept. Getting in on the unoccupied side, she slowly lifted the already-disturbed covers before carefully pulling herself in. Finally, before tuning out and falling asleep for the night, the older woman put her arms around the younger blonde girl, pulling her in close, with only the resistance of pulling her closer fighting her grip.

**Line Break 2**

The next morning found Neru alone in her bed again. Recently, when Miku came through to wake Neru she also dragged the Hung-over Haku to her own room. After getting dressed, Neru trudged downstairs to find her self-appointed human alarm clock excitedly making breakfast.

"Morning, Neru." Miku called to the blonde-haired girl; dressed in a small purple T-shirt and knee-length jean shorts, Miku was already busy getting breakfast ready. "Geez, I don't know why you let Haku sleep in your bed at night. She's a horrible grouch in the morning."

"Can it Miku. I already told you guys. I'm a heavy sleeper; I don't feel her get into my bed. And it's a double-bed, so it's not she contorting me in some weird fashion to squeeze in." Neru explained, somewhat annoyed because Miku was asking this question when everyone else had asked her this many times, including Miku herself.

"Well, you definitely are hard to get up in the mornings when you don't want to get up. Which reminds me, why'd you get up so quick? Normally you're the last one to breakfast." Miku said, putting several pots on the stove.

"I couldn't wait to see Rin after last night." Neru chuckled, sitting up on one of the barstools in the kitchen and scratching her wrist.

"Well I'd watch out if I were you. Len had to sleep in my room last night because Rin was so mad about it." Miku explained, chopping up some of the potatoes she was using.

"Yeah, I know. Though, now your one to talk about people sleeping in other people's rooms." Neru retorted, scratching at her wrist again.

"Well, yes. But Len doesn't take off his pants when he sleeps in my bed, nor does he cuddle up to me like were married." Miku said, defending herself.

"Touché." Neru replied, finally stopping the incessant scratching of her wrist however, leaving it looking rather red.

"Is there something wrong with your wrist, Neru? You've been scratching at it since last night and it looks like you have a rash there." Miku commented, never stopping from her breakfast preparations, though craning her neck to get a better look at what looked like a rash on Neru's left wrist.

"That, um…well I was trying a new herbal soap. And it said online that it can cause rashes in some people. I guess I'm lucky 'cause I only tried it on my wrist." Neru explained, rather rushed in her wording.

"Ok, well if you need it, you could try some of my anti-itch cream in the bathroom. You know the stuff I use for mosquito bites? It works wonders for pretty much any kind of itch." Miku replied, genuinely concerned for her colleague's welfare.

"Yea-Yeah, I might actually try that. Thanks, I guess." Neru said, bringing an end to their immediate conversation. Neru next moved over to the dining table, specifically to the same spot she had for almost a year and a half. Quietly she began to sift through the updates her acquaintances had left for her overnight, as Miku continued to prepare breakfast in the kitchen.

It would be several more minutes before anyone else came down. However, silence prevailed between both Neru and Miku. Then only sounds breaking the silence were those of Neru typing on her phone, and the generic breakfast making sounds that Miku was producing. Finally, after coming down the stairs, Luka was the one to break the silence.

"Good morning, Miku. How's breakfast coming along?" Luka called out, coming into the Kitchen while she was still adjusting the red sundress she was wearing. Expending an interested glance when she saw Neru at the table.

"Oh, it's fine. Luka-san. However, could you cut the carrots for me?" Miku asked, getting an affirmative nod from Luka before getting anything verbal.

"So Neru, to what do we owe the occasion of your early graces?" Luka asked, however the way she phrased the question already told Neru it was nothing more than a ploy to check her mood; so Luka herself would know how to ask the real question she wanted. Neru had been through this several times before, and only used one guess to figure out what Luka's question was. She sighed before responding.

"Well, let me just save you the trouble Luka. Yes, it was me who spiked the blonde-haired, orange fetishist's toothpaste. And I thought I'd come down and get early seating to watch her violent and out-of-place tirade in front you all. Happy?" She explained, getting Luka to put down the knife she was using to give Neru a disappointed look. Neru shook off the look and continued to type on her phone with no sign of slowing down or stopping.

"Neru." Luka strained. "You realize that not everyone in this house is as easy-going about your pranks?" Luka said, asking the question more rhetorically than anything else. However, Neru still responded.

"Yes, and...?" Neru retorted, finally stopping her typing on her phone, and motioning for Luka to continue the point she was trying to make.

"And? And you may have picked the worst one of us all. You know how Rin's been in the past few months, especially recently." Luka fired back. Now standing and facing the blonde-haired teenager.

"Yeah, I know. That's what makes it fun." Neru replied calmly, a small smirk playing on her features.

"Ugh, Neru. Someday she's going to get you back." Luka sighed, going back to slicing the carrots. Neru was about to come back with something for that statement, but Miku decided to jump back into the conversation.

"Well, I think that might be sooner than later; Len had to sleep in my room again, because he didn't want to stick around her." Miku said, bringing her face close to the soup pot in order to smell it.

"Then I say bring it on, nothing but a little rivalry to spill blood on the floor." Neru replied snappily, a slightly larger grin on her face than the one she had had on just seconds before. Both Miku and Luka simultaneously gave Neru a suspicious look. However, all three girls were interrupted when Kaito entered the kitchen.

"Morning everyone; how are you guys doing today?" Kaito called out, intending it only to the two divas currently making breakfast, however drawing three sets of eyes to him. Both Miku and Luka were about to answer however, Neru, quick to her apparent nature was far quicker on the drawn than either of them combined.

"Well, Kaito, as you can see we're all fine. The negi-lover over there hasn't lit herself on fire yet, and Miss D-cup isn't missing any fingers last I checked." Neru said, causing both girls to blush.

"That's…nice, Neru" Kaito said while sweat-dropping. This Neru would have caught if she wasn't focused on the two girls in the kitchen; and when she focused her attention she was glad she did. Miku had turned around and after staring at Luka's chest for a moment had apparently asked Luka something to the effect of 'Are they really D?'; this caused Luka to immediately drop the knife onto the cutting board and cover her large assets with both of her arms, all the while blushing madly.

"Ne-Neru! How could you say something like that?" Luka shouted out.

"Oh, relax. Like half the house couldn't guess your size already. Besides, you leave your door open all the time, anybody with half a set mind could simply walk in and find out for themselves."

"Still you don't need to reveal such personal information about someone else." Luka shouted, before going back to chopping the carrots, however using knife much more aggressively than before. Seconds later though, she stopped and began talking again: "How would you like it if someone else revealed something like your chest size?"

"What chest size?" Neru replied, using her left hand to gesture towards her own chest. "If I were any more flat I could pass as a guy. Hell, the only person in this house who's smaller than me is Rin, everyone else is bigger."

"Um…Guys? Is this really necessary? You really shouldn't start arguments so early in the morning." Kaito muttered, barely audible to any of the three girls in the kitchen, and to that end neither Neru nor Luka backed away from the stare they were now giving each other. However, it would only take a loud call from the stairs to disrupt both the girls

"Good Morning Everyone." Gumi called from the bottom of the stairs, before continuing through the living room to the kitchen. "Oh, Neru-chan. How are you this morning?" Gumi asked having spotted Neru while walking through the kitchen to the dining room adorned in her carrot-print nightgown.

"I'm not dead." Neru replied, going back to typing messages on her cell phone. Behind her, Kaito sat at his chair.

"That's always good." Gumi said, before turning to both Miku and Luka in the kitchen. "How's it coming you guys?"

"We're doing fine Gumi." Miku replied, back into her normal cheeriness. "Feel free to take your seat. Everything will be done in about five minutes."

"Alright, thanks Miku. I'd get in there and help you, but I think I'd just get in the way." Gumi then sat down at her chair, which was located to Neru's left.

"Well, that and last time you volunteered to cook something we lost half the kitchen." Neru added.

"I couldn't help it. I tripped and the oil went onto the stove." Gumi explained, pushing her index fingers together.

"It's alright Gumi, I've had some scary kitchen experiences myself." Kaito said, trying to comfort the green-haired girl.

"Which is why Kaito likes ice cream so much, he can't light it on fire." Neru accosted. She then noticed Len coming down the stairs out of the corner of her eye. His yellow polyester shorts and shirt were very distinctive. She called out: "Hey, what's up, shota?"

"You're still going to call me that? I thought you were done with that already." Len replied, exasperated over his nickname. He wished Neru would just drop that already. A fan had written a rather crazed letter to him about a week back; it was addressed to: 'Kagamine Len, the Shota of my heart', and was otherwise written in some kind of eccentric, girly handwriting that no one in the household could decipher the contents of.

"Are you kidding? It's fan-mail like that that keeps me young and beautiful." Neru shot sarcastically, waving her hand in front of her face in a mocking act of vanity.

"Whatever makes you comfy at night, Neru." Len sighed, eliciting another response from Neru.

"Oh trust me, it does Len. Besides, the most important person you should be able to sleep with is yourself." After Neru said this, she looked up only briefly from her cell phone, but managed to catch a glimpse of a good portion of the people in the house blushing.

"Yeah, about that. You might want to sleep with one eye open for a while. You pissed Rin off something terrible." Len said, casually sitting down to his seat.

"I know, everyone else told me already. If she's got something she's going to do, nothing's going to talk her out of it these days anyway." Neru explained, taking a second to type something on her cell phone before she continued. "But before you people start insisting, I won't do anything to her for a while."

**Line Break 3**

Before long everyone else in the Vocaloid household had come down the breakfast; the only exceptions to that rule were Meiko and Haku, who according to all accounts were assumed hungover. However, the real person everyone was expecting was Rin.

When Rin came down stairs, contrary to what everyone would have thought, she didn't go on a rampage. Instead she simply gathered what she wanted from the food Miku and Luka had prepared, and then took her plate and went back up to her room. All without acknowledging nearly anybody in the group and ignoring all the questions directed towards her.

However, most of the members of the Vocaloid household were wishing she **had** gone off on Neru. At least then she'd be acting semi-normal. During her whole presence in the kitchen, Rin only seemed to give off the kind of vibes that normal people associate with imminent doom. Of course, if Neru was worried she wasn't showing it as she nearly wolfed down her portion of breakfast with the sort of ferocity that would imply that she actually had something to do today.

Of course then, it was no surprise when Neru finished first and then took her plate up to the counter. Even the morning conversation at the table, which Neru had near no input in, didn't falter. And for the first time in a long while, Luka didn't try to lecture Neru about how eating so fast would hurt her digestive tract.

Right now, Neru had to admit her day was looking up. She didn't have to listen to Rin's banshee voice complain –though she loved to watch the out-of-place tirades the blonde often threw these days-. And by some effect of the moon and stars Luka didn't seem to be following through with her complaints about Neru's behavior for too long.

Even now as Neru gathered her clothes for the day on her bed, she couldn't help but be in considerably good spirits. Dell had even sent a link to a video that was funnier than anything she'd seen in the past week.

One-by-one she piled up her clothes for the day; first a low-cut pair of socks, underwear, a red t-shirt bearing the word "princess" in silver glitter, and a simple pair of tan shorts with a brown belt to complete the ensemble.

Leaving her clothes behind, Neru walked towards and into the bathroom. She wasted little time in shedding her clothes, and turning on the water in the shower/bath combo, before sitting down on the toilet in the western-style bathroom. Finally, once her other business was done Neru stepped into the shower to clean herself of yesterday and last night.

**Line Break 4**

After her shower, Neru walked through the hallway, her right hand supporting her towel, her left carrying her previous clothes.

One suspicious thing perked her interest as she approached her room however. Her bedroom door was cracked open. After pushing it open with her leg from what she deemed to be a safe distance (to prevent anyone jumping her as she went through it), she relaxed considerably. After that she didn't consider it much, once she had again closed the door.

It was known through the household that Miku was on a hunt for temporary hair-ties after she threw her last signature pair to the crowd at their last concert. And Neru knew, as her's were near identical –except for color- that they may be targets of Miku's mad morning dash for a pair.

Neru's suspicions were confirmed when she found the right-top drawer of her vanity pulled open, where she kept them. Of course, since she didn't throw them to her fans (what few of them she found there were), Neru still had plenty left. However, Miku's were special order from France, and so it often took a week or so to get more.

Neru put her bed clothes on top of her dresser before dropping her old underthings in the dirty clothes hamper in her closet. Next Neru dropped her towel, taking a couple seconds to stare at her naked figure with a hopeless look on her face before sighing and turning to her new clothes. These also surprised Neru, as they had been obviously disturbed. Apparently Miku had looked through her clothes as well, and after finding none of Neru's trademark hair ties, decided to take them out of the drawers in her vanity. Neru would have to have a long talk with that girl later.

Neru quietly started to get dressed, starting with her red shirt to hide her embarrassingly small chest. This was followed up by her simple pair of yellow underwear, and that was followed by the tan pair of shorts she had set out. Finally she sat down on her bed to put on her socks, doing so while looking at the window –it was a cloudy day outside as it turned out.

The third oddity in her room reared itself when she let her foot fall to the floor and she felt it strike something with her heel. Fearing that she may have just back-kicked her fallen cell phone, Neru quickly scooted off the bed and turned around to face the underside of her bed, immediately she noticed something odd. Instead of her cell phone, she saw a small container that looked rather familiar. And as soon as Neru pulled it out from under the bed, she froze with fear.

It was a bottle of itching powder that she had bought earlier last week, and it was empty.

_'Oh fuck no'_ Neru thought to herself. Now immediately, as if its effects had been magically turned on, Neru quickly felt her feet start to burn. There was a reason why Neru hadn't used the powder.

Instinctively, Neru ripped her socks off causing a flurry of the now-familiar powder which quickly settled on the floor heedless to how Neru flung herself up and out the door.

Quickly she flew to the bathroom, her intent to wash it off quickly. However, with a couple twists of the knob she found it otherwise occupied, and seconds later one would have found Neru dashing down the stairs nearly tumbling down it in an attempt to get to the first floor bathroom.

With the imminent fear of the extreme discomfort in her mind, Neru ignored the surprised looks of Miku, Gumi, and Luka as she flew past the living room. Finally she reached the ante room of the bathroom (this bathroom being completely Japanese-styled and this room being the one where one disrobes) and slammed open the door to the actual bathroom with no regard for any person that might have been in there.

Finally reaching a source of water, she quickly turned on one the shower heads mounted on the wall and aimed the stream towards her feet. Instantly she felt a relief from the acute burning pain, and became alert of the dull burning that lie below it. Finally the three girls she had flown past on her way the bathroom had caught up to her.

"Neru, what going on?" Gumi asked, coming into the bathroom. She was followed by Luka, who was in turn, followed by Miku.

"Some fucking cunt put itching powder in my socks." Neru yelled, swearing through the pain which was growing by the minute

"Well, I told you you'd get bitten back if you keep at your pranks." Luka said, folding her arms, and putting her back to the bathroom wall. This did little to help the pain in Neru's feet and now she was starting to tear up, concerning Miku enough to get closer.

"I never used the fucking powder 'cause I'm fucking allergic to it." At this Luka's face immediately softened. "And some asshole dumped the whole fucking bottle in my socks." Neru yelled. The water wasn't helping anymore, and sharp burning pain was now coming back. Neru felt herself on the verge of tears, something she hated to do in front of other people. In a sudden act of violence she threw the showerhead to the ground spraying the nearby Gumi who squealed in response.

"Okay." Luka began, obviously contemplating what needed to happen. "Miku I need you to go get that Lotion in the blue bottle from the upstairs bathroom."

"B-but Len is in that bathroom right now." Miku replied, blushing.

"I don't care, bust down the door if you have to." Luka said, kneeling down to look at Neru's feet, which were already turning a deep red hue.

"A-Alright." Miku said, leaving the room, however she momentarily ducked back in to ask: "Should I bring my anti-itch stu-"

"Yes, Yes. Just bring it." Luka called, cutting off Miku. Her hands thoroughly exploring the explosive rash growing on Neru's foot. "Damnit Neru, I've never seen a rash spread so quickly."

"S-Shut up, **please**." Neru replied through gritted teeth, tear's filling her normally hostile eyes. Neru didn't think it was possible for her feet to hurt so badly. Even the dull throb associated with standing and walking all day for their concerts, the internal throb that one can't seem to do anything about, didn't compare. It literally felt at this point as if someone had set fire to her feet.

"Luka is there anything I can do?" Gumi asked, obviously terribly concerned about her friend.

In response Luka pointed to the towel rack. "Get me one of the towels, we need to dry her feet for the lotion to be able to soak in better. Then you can go out and get me a bottle of Advil or something."

Gumi quickly complied with Luka's demands and quickly grabbed a towel from the rack. She then went into the kitchen to find the medicine.

Neru violently jumped when Luka started to rub the towel across her foot. However, Luka was quick to tell her to bear with it. Neru complied through gritted teeth, now holding back her rather obvious reaction to outright scream. As much as Luka hated the idea that Neru had the itching powder (she knew it would have otherwise used it on one of the other people in the house), she had to remark about her younger cohort's ability to control herself.

Mere seconds after Luka finish drying off Neru's feet, Miku finally returned with the two bottles of liquids that Luka hoped would help reduce the effects of the rash quickly making itself brusquely apparent upon the skin of Neru's feet.

Before Miku could even utter a sentence, Luka reached up and grabbed the blue-bottled lotion before popping it open and dumping a silver-dollar sized pool on her hand. After which, she began to quickly rub it into Neru's right foot.

Suddenly, Luka called out. "Miku, get down here and help me with her left foot, you can see the kind of pain she's in." This startled Miku, who dropped the yellow bottle of 'anti-itch stuff' in response and let out a quick yelp. However, after seeing Neru's face and seeing that she was now crying, albeit reservedly, Miku quickly poured some of the blue-bottle lotion on her hands and set to helping her counterpart.

After a couple of minutes, both Luka and Miku heard Gumi call out; however, neither heard exactly what the carrot-obsessed girl said. However, Luka had a good idea though. "I thought we were out of Advil. We only go through it like candy." She said, sighing disappointedly.

Around ten minutes passed from when Gumi left, Luka had finally decided that it was all she could do rubbing the lotion into Neru's foot. After checking Miku's work with Neru's other foot and making sure she had done a satisfactory job, Luka looked up to see Neru's face.

Somewhere in the past ten minutes Akita Neru had become a sniveling wreck. However, few could blame her, Luka could swear that Neru's feet had turned just shy of true red, and with significant amount of blisters on the top of her foot, Luka had a significant amount of sympathy for blonde friend. "How does it feel Neru?"

"It still burns like hell, but it's getting better." Neru replied through her snivels, nervously looking at her significantly discolored feet. Meanwhile, Luka washed her hands off with one of the showerheads, an action then copied by Miku.

"Your feet are going to be really sensitive tonight and tomorrow. However, if you're lucky you'll be walking around semi-comfortably in like two days. And in about three days your skin will start peeling." Luka stated, capping the blue bottle she used lotion from earlier.

"How do you know about this kind of stuff Luka?" Miku asked, handing a tissue to the blonde-haired girl for her tears.

"I have a little sister, and there was a time in her life we all swore she was allergic to damn-near anything. Specifically, she had a bad reaction to the weeds we had in our yard a couple of times, and her feet rashed up like this." Luka explained, drying her hands with the same towel she had dried Neru with earlier, she then handed it to Miku to dry her hands with. "Now we should move her to at least the couch for now." Luka remarked, causing Neru to stutter.

"N-no I can do it myself." Neru cried out, before trying to stand up. As a person who was regularly uncomfortable with random contact, and being helped unnecessarily, Neru didn't want either girl to follow her around for the next two days carrying her around. However, she quickly realized how wrong she was in her pursuit as she tried to stand up and found her feet painfully throbbing under the pressure. Immediately she cried out, slamming back down on her butt. Miku immediately rushed to Neru's side and Luka kneeled down to her level.

"Yeah, you're not going to want to do that. You'll not want to try standing until tomorrow afternoon at least." Luka said, in the same tone she used for all of her lectures to Neru; the exception being that this time, Neru was actually paying attention to her. Reluctantly Neru nodded, obviously not happy about the predicament; however when opposed with the pain of throbbing feet with mere pressure, Neru relented.

Forgoing Miku's help, Luka picked up the smaller girl bridal-style, carrying her as far as the couch in the living room. From there she told Miku to get a couple of plastic bags from the kitchen, one to put on her hands, and one to put the contaminated socks in. Luka herself then went upstairs presumably to Neru's room, followed seconds later by Miku.

**Line Break 5**

Hours later found Neru sitting up on her bed, as comfortably as she was going to get. Her feet still stung, but the pain medication helped, and the itch cream that Miku had given her was surprisingly effective for what is was worth.

In the past few hours, a couple of things had changed. It had been discovered that Rin had 'escaped' to one her friends' houses, though many of the Vocaloid household figured this was a good thing. According to the note, Rin was going to be gone until Sunday, and many breathed a sigh of relief as this would allow the tension between the two blondes to decrease and become at least semi-tolerable.

The other change was that, at least for tonight, Luka was going to sleep in Neru's room. An idea that Neru didn't like, but she didn't protest too much. The idea of either having to walk across the floor on her feet to go to the bathroom was a considerable argument against her preferences for the moment.

As it happened though, at least Neru didn't have to suffer complete boredom. Her bedroom, like all the others, had a TV in it, and Neru's laptop was at her bedside should she have need for it. However, such was not the case right now.

Since Luka had to help clean up after dinner, Miku came up to be with Neru. Miku may have been a total ditz sometimes, but at least she had a fairly good taste in light-hearted anime. Neru preferred something with more action a lot of the time but right now she found herself liking the music-club based anime Miku had turned on. She especially liked it when the rowdy brunette in the band scared the tall but weak spirited girl with black hair. Though, Neru had to wonder: why a show focused on a high school band showed more of these girls goofing off than playing music.

Miku seemed to be enjoying it too, much to Neru's annoyance. As it was, it turned out that Miku was one of those people who tend to swing their legs in the air while they lie on their stomach; and, as the case was, Miku was so situated between Neru and a table lamp causing a constant flickering of light on the corner of her eye that was driving Neru nuts.

"Hey, Miku." Neru exclaimed, rising slightly from her reclined position at her bed's headboard. Miku turned her head to face the blonde haired girl, before letting out a small, curious-invoked noise. Next Neru took her arm to push Miku's legs down. "Could you stop swinging your legs, it's distracting."

"Oh, sure Neru-chan." Miku replied, finally relaxing her legs completely on the bed. "Anything else I can do for you?"

At this point Neru did remember she had one thing to ask. "Yeah, were you in my room earlier? Stealing my hair ties perhaps?" Neru asked, curious if Miku had, in fact, been in her room after Rin's trespassing since she hadn't seen any of her hair ties in Miku's hair.

"Um, yeah I was. But I didn't end up wearing any. I held them up to my hair in your mirror and they didn't match at all, so I didn't take them." Miku explained.

"Whatever." Neru sighed, exasperated at the simplicity of the teal-haired girl's mind. Still Neru managed to crack a small smirk from Miku's antics.

"Anything else I could do for you?" Miku asked, sitting up on the bed.

A small chuckle left Neru before she replied. "What do you think? I've had a horrible day." Neru looked at Miku who then sat up.

"Well, I think you need a hug." Miku announced, a sly smile on her face causing Neru to become slightly uncomfortable; it was rare to see the teal-haired girl with such a smile, and Neru could sense this would probably end in direct contact. Neru could feel her pulse rising.

And as if her pulse rising wasn't enough, she felt a blush develop on her cheeks. "N-no, really. I don't." However, if Miku was listening she just plain didn't care as she dove towards the slightly younger girl. Poor Neru didn't have time to react as the teal-haired diva grabbed her up, pulling her into a deep, if somewhat suffocating, embrace.

Instantly, Neru froze up; uncomfortable with the contact that Miku was giving her. It was something that she wasn't familiar with for the simple fact that she had gone without it for so long. The only person who bothered to show her affection in this manner was her mother, who Neru hadn't seen in over four years.

Miku sighed mentally when Neru stopped putting up a fight instead allowing her arms to rest at her sides. Maybe Neru had finally accepted that she wasn't trying to do any harm? Nevertheless, Miku finally released Neru a few seconds later, though for the two involved it felt quite a bit longer.

After retreating from each other, Miku simply sat smiling, convinced she might have done well by convincing Neru that some people might not be trying to hurt her. However Neru showed a different emotion on her face; in fact she showed many. Confusion and remorse were just a few of the sentiments being expressed by Neru's face at the current time, and her body was showing that she was embarrassed and uncomfortable. This caused its own breed of confusion in Miku, who managed to stutter out. "N-Neru I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No, no it's alright I just…" Neru interrupted, more or less trying to delay her counterpart than be rude. After a couple of seconds, Neru finally spoke up again; trying to satisfy the hungry, curious look Miku was now exhibiting. "I just haven't been hugged in a while…nobody's cared to do it."

"That's because you act so mean to people all the time." Miku explained, her brutal penchant for truth shining brightly. "But everybody needs a hug from now and then. That's part of the point of a boyfriend right?" Miku continued, causing a small smirk from both of them as she mentioned one of Gumi's favorite dating proverbs. "When was the last time you even got a hug anyway?"

Neru hesitated for a second, and looked across the bed into Miku's eyes looking for the spark inside them that would tell her that Miku could be trusted with an item of Neru's deeply-hidden personal life. Neru found what she was looking for, but still warned Miku verbally before revealing the details. "If you let this out to anyone, I'll kill you. I will string you up and kill you…It would have been before my Mom left."

After Neru's statement, a silence prevailed between them; only the sound of the TV, on commercial, prevailed in the room. Finally, Miku spoke up. "Wow, Neru...You haven't been hugged at all? You never got close to someone in that time?" Miku said, starting out slowly, before almost sounding like she was lecturing the blonde-haired girl causing an immediate spark of irritation.

"Why should I get that close to anyone at all? Chances are they'd only leave me." Neru shouted, startling Miku slightly; who immediately she regretted getting so worked up in questioning her. Miku apologized, before the silence ensued once again.

"I remember you being brought in by our manager four years ago, Neru. You didn't seem alright at all, it took almost a week before you said anything beyond three words; and even then it was only to scream at me for trying to help you." Miku mused; looking up at Neru, Miku could see she was striking a certain chord with Neru, the blonde girl had pulled her knees up close and had her head tucked into them. "Why haven't you seen your mom in so long Neru?"

As soon as Miku uttered this she immediately knew she hit something, Neru visibly flinched and the visible parts of her face paled. Quietly, Miku continued. "Neru did you have a fight with her? I mean all I heard from our manager is that she left you with us."

Neru shook her head signaling no. But it seemed that Neru herself knew where the conversation was going; Miku noticed as Neru took a sharp inhale. "Neru, what ha-"

"She's dead, alright? She's dead, Miku!"

**Line Break 6**

For several seconds nothing was said; the only sound, besides the television, were the snivels now coming from Neru, which were steadily increasing in volume. Miku herself was at a complete loss for words, Miku could remember how much it hurt when her mom left her with her current manager to tour Japan, but she was also sure it was nothing compared to what Neru had and was feeling. At least Miku still got to see her mother on occasion. Finally, Miku spoke up. "I'm so sorry, Neru. I didn't know."

Neru now took her head from her knees, allowing Miku to see that she was now shedding quite a few tears; it was a sight that broke Miku's heart. "You guys just don't understand at all."

"Well, help me understand Neru. Explain it to me so I can understand." Miku urged, moving around to parallel Neru, siding up alongside her counterpart; however Neru ended up shuffling a small distance away when Miku bumped her.

"I don't want too" Neru let out; struggling to gather coherency beyond her snivels.

"Why Neru? I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on." Miku replied, putting her right arm around Neru's back, causing the blonde girl to tense up before relaxing. "If you're afraid I'm going to hurt you, I'm not."

"But why do you care?" Neru shouted back, causing Miku to retract her arm.

"Because Neru, I want to be your friend. I don't like to see people sad either." Miku explained with a gloomy look on her face.

"Why the hell would you want to be my friend, all I do is pull pranks and-" Neru shouted, getting interrupted by Miku.

"And it hurts to be alone right? And you're afraid that somehow, anyone you make friends with is going to leave you, right?" Miku shouted back, emotion apparent in almost every part of her voice.

"H-How the fuck would you-" Neru retorted, again getting cut off by the seemingly livid tealette.

"Because for more than half my life I was sure of the same thing." Miku yelled out, a single tear making its way down her face. This revelation stopped Neru's brain in its spot.

"W-What?" Neru asked, unsure of what she had just heard.

"I…My mom used to travel a lot when I was young, just when I got used to one place and make friends, we'd have to pick up and move again. I don't hate my mom, I love her a lot and it hurt really badly when she left me here. But the thing is, she saw how much it hurt when I had to leave my friends behind, so she finally got me an interview with our manager, and I ended up here. I know how you feel if that's what you're afraid of. And you should still look out when getting friends and especially boyfriends; but if you want somewhere to start, someone to be friends with, I'll be that person if you want." Miku explained gaining small tears and a melancholy look on her face during her story, but a warm and inviting smile appearing when she gave her offer to Neru.

"I…uh…mm…" Neru muttered, when she realized the full extent of what Miku was saying. Being a traveling child wasn't anything she would wish upon anyone, and yet one of the most light-hearted people she knew came out of that lifestyle. "How could you possibly be so open about it?"

"Because I got over it Neru." Miku replied. "I was just as quiet as you when I came to this house, but once I realized that the people here could finally be friends that I wouldn't have to leave, I loved it." Neru simply sat after Miku explained this, trying to take in the advice. Finally, as it seemed, Neru's heart released some of its iron hold on her misery.

"So…you'd like to be my friend…" Neru asked, quietly and almost below Miku's ability to hear.

"If you'd let me." Miku replied, smiling back with her normal wide and bright style. Neru hesitantly looked down on the bed for a few seconds before returning to look at Miku.

"I think…I'd like that." Neru said quietly. Slowly, Miku raised her arm around Neru's back; however, like last time, Neru flinched slightly when she made contact. Unlike last time however Neru settled down almost immediately, and went even further by cautiously leaning towards Miku. Miku however, had none of the reservations Neru was confronted with, and welcomed her complement by pulling her in softly.

Neru began to quickly relax in the older girl's grip, allowing herself to fall against Miku. It felt comforting, in a way she hadn't been privy to since her mother died. Part of her was still wary of Miku, but she'd deal with that later, right now all she wanted to do was relax and be absorbed in the warmth the simple act of a hug gave her.

**Line Break 7**

One half hour later found little change in either girl's posture. However, during the time Neru had fallen asleep, much to the relief of Miku. It meant that Neru finally felt secure enough with her company. Though, if given the chance Miku would have liked to join her counterpart in sleep, it was definitely not the best day Miku had had in a while. Still, she steeled herself to wait until Luka was finally finished, passing yawns now several times a minute.

Immediately after both Luka and her had removed Neru's contaminated pair of socks from her room, and finished thoroughly vacuuming the carpet in the area where the itching powder may have come into contact with the floor, Miku's manager had called her up. Within an hour Miku was rushing to her manager's studio and re-recording one her after-concert blog interviews. What did the interview cover? Miku couldn't even remember at this point, much less care. All she wanted was to go to bed, and if Luka didn't get here, Miku would soon drop where she sat.

Fifteen minutes later, Miku finally got her wish as Luka finally got around to getting dressed for bed and coming over to Neru's room. Finally she opened the door, "Hey Miku, I-"

"Shhhh" Immediately, Luka found herself being quieted. Looking over to the bed she found Miku with motioning to the very-well asleep Neru, a sight Luka was not accustomed to for sure. Luka stood in the doorway as she watched Miku meticulously recline Neru so that the blonde girl's head rested on her pillow. Finally, Miku carefully got off the bed and motioned for Luka to follow her as she passed by. Luka was more than willing to follow.

Once Miku had gotten Luka outside Neru's room, and Luka had shut the door, Miku led Luka into her room. Miku finally spoke to Luka once her door was shut, "She's not as bad as a lot of us think."

"Oh, really? How's that?" Luka asked, watching as Miku picked her pajamas up from her dresser.

"I don't really want to go through it all tonight." Miku said before a yawn escaped her. "But I'll suffice it to say that's she just really afraid of being left." Miku explained.

"So she's really a nice person underneath, huh?" Luka asked, taking in Miku's short, but somewhat informative explanation.

"Probably." Miku started, pausing slightly. "I plan to talk to her tomorrow some; hopefully I can get her to come out of her shell, huh?"

"That'd be nice, and then we can focus on Rin and hopefully get her to calm down." Luka replied.

"Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?" Miku agreed, smiling as she turned on her table lamp and switching off the overhead.

"Ah, so you're going to bed?" Luka asked.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to stay up much later, today really tired me out." Miku replied, sitting down on her bed checking her phone to make sure it was charging.

"I'd imagine." Luka commented, finding words to wrap up their conversation. "Well then, I'll let you get to sleep then. Thanks for helping out with her today; I'm sure she appreciates it in her own way."

"I know, like I said, she's not a bad person." Miku responded.

"Alright, Good night." Luka announced, finally closing the door to Miku's room before returning to Neru's room, opening the door with the same care as she did when she left.

Neru had curled up to a loose fetal position during the time in between when Miku had left her and Luka had returned. Her hands had curled into the blanket and dragged it towards her, causing heavy distortion in the pattern on the bedspread.

Luka found it in herself to go and gently sit on the opposite side of Neru's bed, before calmly beginning to stroke the blonde girl's head. Immediately, the younger girl responded by unconsciously snuggling towards Luka's hand much like a kitten would. After a few seconds though, Neru slowly started to come to, waking up from her sleep. Luka supposed this was just luck, as it prevented her from having to wake the teenager to get her dressed for bed and get her under the blanket as well. Though, she also figured Neru wouldn't like doing that either once she'd gotten asleep once. Cautiously, Luka softly spoke to the half-awake girl, "Hey, Neru. We have to get you up and changed, so I need you to wake up, alright?"

"Luka?" Neru responded sleepily, and sitting up. "Where's Miku?"

"She needed to go to bed, the whole day wore her out." Luka explained, eliciting a small nod from Neru. "Speaking of which, we need to get you dressed and prepped for bed."

"Alright." Neru replied, still in the process of waking back up. However, she was aware enough to scoot to the edge of the bed so that Luka could help pick her up.

"Do you want to change, or do you want to want to use the bathroom first?" Luka asked while she walked around to the side of the bed Neru was on.

"Just bring my clothes with; I'll put them on after I'm done with the bathroom." Neru replied, pointing to the bed clothes she had put on her dresser that morning. Luka quickly grabbed the discarded shirt and shorts (a pair relatively similar to Len's, as Luka commonly thought), before handing them of the younger, blonde girl before picking her up in the same manner as she had earlier and throughout the day.

Quickly Luka took Neru to the bathroom, her strength allowing her to pick up Neru and carry her, but she didn't have the energy to carry Neru for a long time. As they entered the bathroom, she completed the trip by placing Neru on the bathtub's edge, then returned to the door to close it. Neru on the other hand, started to remove her clothes; taking them off in very much the opposite order she had put them on with that morning. The only exception to the rule being that she didn't remove her T-shirt quite yet.

Neru waved her had to tell Luka to let her handle the next parts; carefully Neru scooted along the bathtub edge, before quickly shifting onto the toilet, which was luckily juxtaposed to the tub. It took a second before Neru was relieving herself, at which point Luka went from being ready to help her in case she slipped to brushing her own teeth.

In a few moments, Neru and Luka effectively switched places, the only difference being that Neru had slipped completely into her sleeping clothes, first replacing her shirt before pulling on her shorts, after which Luka helped to set her on the bathroom counter so that she could comfortably brush her teeth. However, unlike Luka, Neru didn't spend much time brushing her teeth and had several seconds before Luka was done with her bodily functions, and it was a few more seconds before Neru was once again picked up by the pink-haired singer.

Having her dirty clothes in hand, Neru was placed onto her bed, before handing them over to Luka; she in turn took them over to Neru's dirty clothes basket neighboring the dresser in the room. After that Luka turned to the blonde haired girl who was busy with her phone. "Is there anything, I can get for you? I'm going to go down and get a glass of water." Luka said, addressing Neru.

"No, not really." Neru responded, still typing away at her phone. After the reply Luka left the room leaving Neru to herself. The few minutes between Luka's leave and return was spent finishing up on the many updates Neru made through her phone daily.

Dell had just returned from his job and was now ranting about how some 'Jackass' had jammed the office copier three times today. Teto had reported her daily bread intake before turning in for her night; and Ted, her brother, had reported that she was still calling herself a chimera. All-in-all things that were regular occurrences, but they were the kind of regular that meant life was still okay, and the world's gravity hasn't inverted itself…yet.

After having caught up with her internet 'friends' Neru finally shut her phone off for the day before plugging it into its charger.

Obviously, it had been a very tiring day for the seventeen year old girl. And Neru was quite ready to turn in. She began by slipping under the yellow covers of the bed on the left side, turning onto her right side, turned off her table lamp, and closed her eyes.

Within a few minutes one would have found Neru asleep, as did Luka as she came back into the room.

'_I guess she got to sleep again.' _Luka thought to herself as she saw the sleeping figure. _'Not that I can blame her.'_

Luka sighed; she had wanted to talk to Neru a little bit before they both went to bed. Regardless though, at least it was quiet in the household for a few minutes. After taking the glass of water she had gotten and putting on the nightstand on the right side of Neru's bed, Luka herself slipped underneath the covers quickly facing away from Neru's side and turning off the table lamp on the nightstand leaving the room completely dark.

**Line Break 8**

Once Neru had fallen asleep, true to her nature and her name, she had slept like a rock. However, it was the dull ache of her feet that brought her out of her dreams and into the warm, sweat-drenched reality of her room.

"Ugh, god. Why's it so warm?" Neru remarked; before noticing that while the other side of her bed was disturbed, the person who occupied it was no longer in her room.

Remembering about her feet, Neru pondered her options; the fact is that the room was overly warm for Neru, plus added to that she was feeling rather dehydrated due to her apparent night of sweating, and that would only take one test to confirm.

Neru cautiously raised her arm, and with all the ladylike qualities she possessed took a reserved sniff before realizing that, quite possibly, all of the sweat and wetness accumulation was from her even though it was rather excessive. Furthermore, if one couldn't guess, Neru was not a fan of being warm and sweating at any time. She preferred dark, cool environments.

Being hot only pissed Neru off, and being sweaty? That was another story. Neru didn't like smelling of herself; and what was worse was the feeling of it, especially when two appendages met each other.

Regardless, Neru shifted to the side of her bed. She clearly remembered Luka's advice from yesterday, however sitting around in this heat would be something even more unbearable than a marginable amount of pain. After grabbing her phone from its charger and quickly turning it on, Neru cautiously began to shift her weight to her feet, and eventually stood up full.

Immediately the dull ache in her feet increased, but it wasn't worse than she had felt after some of the concerts she had attended. Furthermore, the bottoms of her feet, where the skin contacted the floor, almost like they felt yesterday. Neru didn't like it, but she could deal with it, enough.

Cautiously, Neru walked across her room to her dresser. Changing into something more comfortable was the first priority Neru marked for today. She would deal with taking a shower later when her feet felt better, which according to Luka, would only be later in the afternoon anyway.

Sifting out another round of clothes, and making sure that none of them were contaminated, Neru brought them back to her bed. Again her order reigned here. Her shirt, still quite damp from the night, came off first. Quickly, Neru made her way over to her dresser to grab and apply her deodorant before returning and slipping on the purple tank top she had chosen.

Next Neru quickly slipped down her shorts. She then, in the second display of absolute lady-like qualities she had shown today, used her old shirt to gracefully wipe the insides of her thighs of the obnoxious sweat there. Finally she pulled on her newest pair of underwear, another simple pair but green this time, before pulling on a simple pair of jean shorts that came down to just above her knees. She forwent her socks for obvious reasons.

Stepping to her door and going through it, Neru took a moment to note that the whole house was quiet; which if it weren't clear enough, was an exceptional rarity in the Vocaloid house. Neru made it a point then to glace at her phone at this point, noting that it was already about noon. Regardless, Neru didn't remember any event going on today. It was Saturday, however, so it wouldn't be unusual for almost the whole household to find something to do outside of the house.

Slowly Neru stepped down the stairs to the living room downstairs, still Neru didn't find anyone. She was starting to think even Luka left her at home. Making her way to the kitchen Neru found the house's dishwasher at work, but no other considerable sign of life remained.

Sighing Neru opened one of the cabinets in the kitchen, allowing sight of many different kinds of bowls. Grabbing one of the bowls at random, Neru then took it across the kitchen before opening another cabinet and grabbing one of the many cereals out of it. This time Neru took time at choosing, eventually opting to take a cereal with dried strawberries inside.

After filling her bowl with the cereal, Neru sealed the box back up before stowing it away again. Then, after adding Milk, Neru was finally able to sit down at the table and enjoy her 'breakfast'.

While Neru ate her breakfast with one hand, she checked the updates for her phone with the other; unfortunately it seemed the day was going to be rather bland. It was especially convincing due to the fact that the day was already well and started by the time Neru was getting up.

"Neru?" A voice suddenly called, startling Neru bad and causing her to flip a good amount of her cereal onto the table. Immediately Neru's anger started to grow. Finally looking up she found Luka standing in the living room.

"Can't I just eat my goddamn breakfast in peace?" Neru said with a low boiling of anger apparent in her voice as she started to clean up the spilt milk and cereal with the napkins kept on the table.

"Cool the attitude, Neru. I was just surprised to see you down here." Luka explained before coming over to the table and proceeding to help Neru clean up the mess she had helped to make.

Neru didn't mind the idea of Luka helping her, in fact she let the woman take over most of the work, however something didn't sit right with Neru when their hands brushed together during the process. Luka's hand was extraordinarily warm, especially considering that Luka's hands were normally much colder than Neru's.

"What have you been doing this morning?" Neru asked. Finally getting up, though cringing while she did, and taking the now-soaking napkin to the garbage can.

"Just cleaning up the bathrooms, why?" Luka replied, mimicking Neru's action with her own napkin.

"Your hands are burning hot." Neru stated, causing Luka to be set back a bit. Neru took this opportunity to scan Luka over, taking in that Luka's face was awfully flush.

"Well, I've been using warm water, so that's why." Luka replied hastily, trying to hide something with all the subtlety of a jet airplane on takeoff.

"Bullshit. Your hands aren't wet, your face is flushed, and now I'm willing to bet now that me waking up in a bed sweating like crazy is likely due to you. So either you have a masturbation problem or there's something else going on." Neru said, after quickly taking note that Luka's hands aren't wet, and to a point figuring out where this conversation is going.

"H-How dare you!" Luka shouted, cracks at masturbation not usually among her favorite jokes.

"I'm only saying what I see." Neru explained, taking in a spoonful of her remaining cereal now that she had sat down.

"Why you have such a tendency to imply such things I'll never know." Luka said, raising her voice. Neru perked an eyebrow that she had provoked Luka's ranting so easily, normally it took more pushing. "Honestly, have you any tact at all?"

Neru then watched as Luka stormed into the kitchen, and then watched out of the corner of her eye as Luka aggressively clamored at a cleaner bottle in one of the cabinets. As Luka went to go back to the bathroom though, in the anger she felt, she turned to make one last remark to Neru for the time being.

"Considering this, I shouldn't have even-" Luka got out before suddenly stopping.

"'Shouldn't have even' What Luka?" Neru asked angrily before looking up and sighting the pink-haired diva. In short, she did not look well. Specifically, she had the very specific look of someone who was about to… "Oh, shit. Hang on" Neru shouted, quickly getting up and running to the trash can that was used moments earlier.

Thinking quickly Luka dropped the cleaner she was holding and met Neru, who had picked up the trash can, half way. Immediately, as Neru had perceived, Luka began to empty the contents of her stomach into the trash can.

**Line Break 9**

Minutes later found little change in Luka's position. She was still bent over the trash can. Neru however, had accomplished cleaning up her breakfast. Even Neru knew she wouldn't be able to go back to eating any time soon with the image of Luka's vomit still on her mind.

"I thought you were sick." Neru simply said, handing the older woman a glass of water she had prepared.

"Shut up." Luka replied, taking a sip from the water. "I can't be sick, nobody else would clean anything. I have to." Luka explained before trying to get back up. Immediately, Neru knocked her back down onto her backside.

"You're not going anywhere except to bed." Neru asserted, readying her hand again if she needed to put the woman on ass again.

"No, I'm going to finish this. Weren't you fucking listening?" Luka screamed, Neru allowed her to get up. However, once Luka was on her feet, she felt her top half being pulled down hard. Once her eyes met Neru's, she was immediately fearful; Neru had an intimidating stare that would unnerve anybody and she was using it now.

"Listen, either you're going to rest in your bed; or I'm going to break one of your legs so you can't do this." Neru explained with a cold chill evident in her voice.

"Unless you're going to do the fucking cleaning, let me fucking g-" Was all Luka was able to get out before Neru's hand swiftly made it to the side of her neck. Luka's normally quick reflexes didn't react fast enough and once Neru got a hold of her target it was instantly harder for the woman to escape. Luka quickly gave up her fight as she blacked out.

**Line Break 10**

While Neru sort of didn't like attending her self-defense classes, she was happy she was able to walk away with one little treat. She hadn't been able to use her 'sleeper hold' before, but right now Neru was fairly happy she was able to remember it. For one thing it shut the older woman up for the moment so she could think. However, Neru's mood quickly soured again when she realized she pretty much just volunteered to clean the bathrooms.

The logic followed that Luka was the only person that normally cleaned them, and since Neru had just put her on the floor, it goes without saying that Neru should accept the responsibility. Furthermore, since the bathrooms were not cleaned, the rest of the household was likely to complain. And finally, it figured Neru technically had a favor to repay now from yesterday.

"Fucking A…" Neru cursed beneath her breath, realizing that her conscious wouldn't let her live this down if she didn't. She also realized that, as Luka's breath came upon her leg, she'd have to do something about the taller woman as well.

'_The shit I get myself into…honestly…'_ Neru thought as she picked up the older slightly to test her weight. She quickly realized the pink-haired woman was in all likelihood quite of a bit heavier than her herself if it wasn't apparent by their size. _'Gah, fuck this is going to be fun.'_

It took several minutes for Neru to eventually get Luka onto the living room couch, a point which was often thought unreachable at times. However, Neru was finally able to get Luka to the couch without incurring too much of the wrath from her feet.

As Neru finally set Luka's arms and legs on the house, she breathed a sigh of relief. _'Damn woman was only heavy enough.'_ It took Neru a couple of seconds to collect herself before realizing that she had better get started, if the other Vocaloids saw her cleaning anything besides her room she'd never be able to live it down. She next covered the older woman part way with the blanket normally lopped over the back of the couch.

Lastly, before leaving, Neru noticed on last thing that irked her. After making sure that Luka was still well out, she reached out and lightly manipulated Luka's well-endowed right breast. "Lucky Bitch…"

**Line Break 11**

Two hours later, Luka Megurine found herself coming out of sleep; and like she woke up this morning, she found herself sweaty and her head felt incredibly stuffed up. Slowly, she reoriented herself so that she was sitting up on the couch upon which she was placed. Soon Luka was trying to figure out what she was doing before she had apparently fallen asleep. However, with no luck given to that venture, it was soon left and doomed to die alone.

Luka next started to stand up, carefully to prevent tipping over. Since the bathroom was closest, Luka decided it would be best to wash her face off before resuming anything.

Silently she moved across the hall opening the partially-open door further and then turning on the light in the room which really made up an ante-room for the bathroom. She then moved to the sink and turned on the cold water before splashing a copious amount on her face. Instantly she sighed as it helped her cool down.

After turning off the water Luka turned around to the towel rack and dried her face off in the towel hung there. She admired how soft it was on her face, it had obviously been washed recently. That triggered something with Luka.

Suddenly, she remembered that she had been cleaning the bathrooms. But after carefully trying reconstructing her thoughts, she couldn't quite remember why she had stopped. This was rather trifling for the pink-haired woman, as one could imagine.

Confused, Luka figured that might as well go get a soda from the kitchen considering her dry mouth at this point. She exited the bathroom after turning off the light; and after turning right outside the door she was on course for the kitchen.

As she approached the kitchen Luka began to hear sounds of activity emanating from it. Turning the corner from the open dining room Luka was able to sight the person making the noise; it didn't take Luka a long time to recognize the long blonde of Neru Akita.

"Neru, what are you doing?" Luka called out, causing the younger woman to jump, give a small yelp, and drop the dish she had been holding. The dish crashed to the floor and shattered.

"Shit…" Neru muttered as she bent down and began to pick up the biggest pieces of the once intact, ornate ceramic disc. As she picked up the pieces, Luka soon came over to help, after having gotten the kitchen's broom and dustpan which she immediately began to use in tandem with Neru's efforts and soon both of them had cleaned the shattered dish from the floor.

As Luka went to empty the dustpan of its contents and return both it and the broom back their resting places, Neru busied herself with her phone, once again checking the updates from her internet friends. Luka then went to one of the cabinets, and after obtaining a glass from it, filled the glass with water from the fridge dispenser before taking a first gulp from it.

"Neru, is there anyone else home?" Luka asked, sitting down at the table where Neru had just sat herself.

"Not that I know of, why?" Neru responded, flipping through her updates as fast as she would any other day.

"Then it was you who cleaned the bathroom?" Luka supposed, drawing a nod and a grunt for 'yes' from the smaller blonde woman. "Why did you do it, and why did I wake up on the couch?"

"I had to do it because you passed out." Neru lied, thanking the powers that be that Luka didn't remember her putting her out.

"I passed out on the couch?" Luka questioned, rubbing her thumb and her index fingers on her eyebrows in deep thought.

"No, you passed out in the kitchen." Neru responded, still going through the updates on her phone in the meantime.

"Then **you** put me on the couch?" Luka figured, looking quite confused as she did so.

"Yes, and might I add, slowly." Neru responded, finishing up the updates on her phone before closing, and then putting the device down on the table. In addition, it also seemed that Luka's questions had run out as well as she returned to quietly sipping from her glass of water, however, Neru figured it was time for her to ask some questions.

"So, how long have you been sick?" Neru suddenly asked, with all of the expectation of a parent questioning a child for bad grades.

"Come again?" Luka replied.

"How long have you been sick?" Neru asked again, not removing the tone she had included in the first iteration. "Otherwise, explain to me why you threw up in the trash can, passed out, and blew a 38 on the thermometer when I used it on you?"

Luka sat for moment stunned, but finally relented after a few seconds. "I was feeling weird yesterday, but I didn't actually have many symptoms from it until last night."

"It would have been nice if you would have told me when you got up." Neru stated. "I had to wonder why I woke up so warm. Not to mention, I hope it's not contagious."

"Sorry, I didn't think about that." Luka lamented, moving to support her head with her hands.

"That's unusual for you." Neru noted, before leaning back in her chair. "Whatever, if I do catch it, it only gives more reason to be lazy."

"You're not supposed to take advantage of sickness, you know?" Luka complained.

"I can use sickness in any way I want when it's forced upon me." Neru retorted, gazing up towards the ceiling and the elaborate chandelier placed above the table.

"Ugh, Neru you're incorrigible." Luka said, sighing dejectedly.

"And you're annoying to be around at times. Let's draw our lines where they are." Neru countered, folding her hands behind her head.

"Gee, thanks. No pulling punches for the ill?" Luka returned, sarcasm vibrantly apparent in her voice.

"Now who's trying to take advantage of their sickness?" Neru pointed out, a small smirk at play on her features. In response, try as she might Luka couldn't prevent herself from quickly developing a smirk and laughing lightly at the irony she had set herself into.

"So you cleaned _both_ the bathrooms just because I passed out?" Luka asked after she had settled down.

"Honestly? I did it because otherwise everyone would keep complaining about it. It would be just like them to freak out because their towels aren't completely fresh." Neru admitted.

"Oh, gee. Thanks for making me feel special. You could have just said you did it for me." Luka commented.

"I'm not here to suck up to anyone. It's just not my thing." Neru explained.

"I can see that…" Luka commented wryly. "But you could at least accept the credit for doing it. So, thanks."

"Don't mention it. Really, I'd never be able to live it down."

**Line Break 12**

"Hey Miku, how do you think we did at the concert?" Len asked. They were both walking down the main drag of the local mall.

"Huh?" Miku replied, having missed Len's question while looking at a shop's window display. "Sorry, I was looking at this display."

"Ah, it's alright. I was just asking how you thought the concert went?" Len asked again, also turning his attention to the display. Inside the case was a model featuring a light pink sundress and matching wide-brimmed hat.

"Oh, um…" Miku then paused, thinking to herself momentarily before responding. "I think it went well. I think I've done better, but all of the rest of us hit their marks I think."

"Huh, how come you don't think you did as well as you've done before?" Len asked, while following Miku as she moved over to the next group of shops.

"Well, I didn't really agree with the song lineup. Specifically…" Miku explained before she got entranced in another window display. "Specifically, I don't like doing Love is War."

"Oh, really?" Len asked. "Why's that?"

"I guess it's just because the song is about such a hard prospect." Miku quickly explained. "It doesn't exactly give you the confidence to go out and start dating."

"No, I guess not." Len replied. "Is that why you don't Miku?"

"Don't what?" Miku asked, her eyes glued to the entrancing tops and bottoms displayed in the case in front of her.

"Date?" Len reiterated.

"Oh, um. Sorry, I didn't follow." Miku replied, remembering the topic before. "Um. Not really. The song doesn't help, but that's not the only reason. I just don't want to right now. I guess you could say I don't need to since I have everyone else to talk to and stuff like that." She explained, smiling during the last few sentences.

"I suppose that makes sense." Len remarked before he started to look around the hall of the mall, also looking for something to investigate. As he looked about his eyes were drawn to attention to the sight of Meiko and Kaito walking away further down the hall. The distinctive scarf of the male of the couple serving as an efficient way of identification.

'_It looks like those two are having fun'_ Len thought to himself, as he saw the two vividly conversing with each other.

"Hey, Len I'm going to go in and get one of these." Miku called out, pointing to one of the light blue tank-tops in the window.

"Oh, then I'll come with." Len replied, moving towards the entrance of the small shop where Miku was. Before getting there Miku turned around and pointed up.

"Are you sure about that?" Miku teased. Looking where Miku was pointing revealed the name of the shop: _Sassy Girl_.

"Ugh" Len voiced, before replying to Miku's teasing question. "Yeah, sure. Not much going on out here anyway."

"Alright, as long as you're okay with that." Miku replied beckoning him with her hand.

Entering the shop Len's nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of various perfumes; not all of which were that bad, he had to admit. Of the ones he could identify were several varieties of fruits and flowers together, but there were a fair bit of unknown smells as well. The lighting was fair too, not the over-bright purist lights of some of the main-line shops; and it wasn't under-lit like some of the darker-themed shops around the mall either. All-in-all it wasn't a bad first impression.

As soon as Len and Miku entered the store they were immediately called out too. One of the shopkeepers; a thin, brown haired girl about Miku's height, came running over dressed in jean-shorts cut off above the knee, and a red tank-top both of which could have been bought from the same store. "Hey you guys. Welcome to Sassy Girl, is there anything I can help you find."

"Not really, I just want to get one of the light blue tank-tops like the ones displayed in the window." Miku replied, brandishing a smile to reflect the one on the shop-girl's face.

"Sure, I know the one; I'll get one for you if you want to meet me at the counter." The girl offered, pointing over to the glass-case counters in the middle of the shop.

"Alright, I'd like that." Miku replied, immediately grabbing Len's hand and leading him up to the counter while the girl went over to the side of the store and grabbed one of the tank-tops from the stack of them from the cubbyhole shelves. When Len and Miku reached the counter, the young woman was already coming over with the top in tow.

"You're a 'small' right?" The girl asked as she approached, drawing a "Yep" from Miku. "I guessed so. Do you need anything else today?" She asked, starting to ring up the shirt.

"Nope, that should do." Miku replied, while she reached into handbag to get her wallet out.

"Alright then, that's going to be ¥1679." The girl announced, before waiting for Miku to gather the cash from her wallet. She then directed her attention to Len: "So you being the gentleman and carrying the packages for her today?"

"Ah, well, um…" Len stuttered, not expecting the clerk to talk to him. "I-I, uh, guess so." His confusion caused both of the girls to giggle a little bit at his startled.

"It's alright Len, I'll carry it." Miku said, before handing a ¥2000 bill to the clerk. "That should cover it."

"In fact it does." The girl replied, playing along with Miku's dialect. Quickly she rang up the transaction before opening the drawer, and picking out several coins. "And you have ¥321 to spare." She exclaimed, giving the coins to Miku before proceeding to put the tank-top into a bag and adding the freshly printed receipt to that.

"Thanks for coming." The girl announced, before turning to Len. "Be sure you take care of her, alright?" She added, winking at both of them before running off to help more browsing customers. The statement caused Len to blush again, and Miku to quietly giggle at it.

Walking out of _Sassy Girl_ Miku immediately struck up conversation with Len. "Hey, Len?"

"Yeah?" Len replied, turning to look at her.

"You didn't have to come with me, you know. If you're trying to impress me, you don't have to." Miku explained, causing Len to break eye contact momentarily.

"No, it's alright. I don't mind too much. I didn't have much of anywhere else to be." Len replied.

"Alright, as long as you're fine with it, but don't feel like you have to." Miku resolved before beginning to walk down the main hallway of the mall once again. Len quickly began to follow taking careful notice to which shops the older girl was looking at. Miku seemed to trend to stores similar to the recently visited _Sassy Girl_.

However, there was a store that did seem to catch Miku's eye a bit more, and in fact drew her in enough for Len to have to come off the main drag of the mall. It seem as though Miku had become engrossed in a small, heart-shaped, Ruby pendant in the display of a jewelry outlet.

"What's up, Miku." Len asked bending down to the case's level where Miku found her head.

"Ah, I'm just looking at this pendant." Miku simply replied. "I just think it looks pretty is all."

"Are you going to get it?" Len asked, looking at the price which was less than he had expected at only ¥30715. As he did the math in his head the total with tax came out to around ¥32300.

"Yeah, it's really pretty; but I don't have that kind of money on me right now. I only brought about ¥10000 with me." Miku replied, standing up straight again.

"I could get it for you." Len offered, standing up himself and facing Miku.

"Hah?" Miku mouthed out, startled by the gesture. "Um, no. You don't have to, it's your money you should use it on what you want to use it for."

"Then, is it alright if I want to use it to get it for you?" Len posited, looking off in the distance with an almost unnoticeable blush.

"I-I, uh…" Miku stuttered, trying to think up a good reply to the rather interesting circumstances, all the while she was earning a more noticeable blush. "I-I guess so, if you really want to…"

"I would like to." Len replied, mainly to reassure the obviously flustered girl. As Len flagged down a shopkeeper Miku couldn't help but wonder what would possess Len enough for him to do such a thing for her. Sure she had expressed want in the pendant, but for him to go out of his way and spend such an amount on her alone was not something the tealette was used too. As Miku came out of her immediate thoughts, Len was coming back to where she stood.

"Here you go." Len said smiling as he handed her a small black jewelry box. "The owner said we're lucky, this is the last one they had."

"Really?" Miku asked, as she received the box. Opening the box she found the pendant sparkling as if had never left the case. "I still feel kinda bad about making you get this for me."

"No, don't worry about it Miku. I wanted to get it for you. Plus we may have gotten a new sponsor. When he asked how I had the cash on hand I told the owner who I am and he said if I put in word to our manager and they end up in a sponsorship he'll give us a discount, he'll even refund this up to the amount of the discount."

"Wow" Miku replied, not entirely sure how to react to this news either.

"Anyway, try it on." Len said, pointing to the box.

"Alright." Miku replied, opening the box and gingerly lifting the necklace until the whole chain was off the floor of the box. She then put the box into her handbag before lightly taking the chain, reversing it so that the pendant would face away from her skin, and draping it over her head. Immediately, she found Len smiling back at her.

"It looks really good Miku." Len announced, picking up a mirror from the counter of the jewelry shop and positioning it so that Miku could see herself. Immediately, Miku's face lit up.

"It does!" Miku exclaimed. "Thanks, Len."

"No problem, Miku." Len replied, as they both started into the main drag of the mall again.

"Hey, Len and Miku. It's time to go!" Meiko announced, as she ran up to them with Kaito not far behind. "Gumi's on her way back to the car too, it's good we ran into you on our way there, I don't want to be playing phone tag in a mall."

"We just got done shopping, so we're ready to go." Miku replied, and started to walk alongside both Meiko and Kaito who had slowed to a walk.

"Oh, really? What'd you get?" Meiko asked, looking Miku over for new things.

"Ah, just a tank-top, today." Miku replied.

"Really, what's this then?" Meiko questioned, mimicking stroking the pendant adorning Miku's neck.

"I-uh, well…" Miku responded, her embarrasement enough to give her a clue in addition to the one supplied when Miku's eyes shifted towards Len's direction.

"Ah, really?" Meiko called out before slipping behind a little to where Len was walking. "Len you sly dog you, making the Lady feel pretty, huh?" Meiko announced, resulting in an instant blush for both Len and Miku adding to Mieko's amusement of the scene.

"In any case, it looks real cute." Mieko declared, as she returned to her spot in line.

"T-thanks…" Miku timidly replied.

**Line Break 13**

"Hey, Len." Miku said, catching him by the sleeve of his shirt as they got out of the minivan.

"Yeah?" Len asked, turning around.

"I just wanted to thank you for today." Miku replied, coming a bit closer than normal.

"Like I said Miku, no pro-" Len began explaining as he before he was cut off as Miku came closer. Suddenly, he could feel her arms around him and envelop him, surprised by the gesture he couldn't have resisted even if he had wanted to.

"Like **I** said, Thanks. I really like it." Miku reiterated, blushing wildly as she walked into the house leaving the similarly blushing boy alone in the wonder of the warm hug he had just received.

**Line Break 14**

Several hours later the house had settled down again since most of the Vocaloid group returned from their trip to the mall. Neru had retreated to her room again and was quickly becoming bored with her situation. She realized during dinner that she really shouldn't have been out on her feet, even if it was helping Luka with her chores for the day to repay her for the day before. Even now as she lay on her bed they ached with a certain ferocity that was just above annoying and just below actually painful. Frustrating, as the case was.

In all honesty, Neru was not only bored, but a bit lonely as well, more than normal anyway. Neru regularly floated among her lonely feelings, but they never really got her down. Of course there were a few occasions when the feeling became almost unbearable. But Neru found little alternative than just bearing it, something has become progressively harder to do over the past three and a half years.

During the most recent episodes, it had been especially hard to get through them, and more often than not ended up with Neru crying herself into sleep. Beforehand, feeling completely unloved by the world.

Neru really didn't feel like going through that kind of pain tonight, nor any night that it had happened in the past. But what could she do? There wasn't really anyone she could go talking to in the house. Or was there?

Neru didn't really like the idea of asking someone else for help, much less someone she had only become 'friends' with less than 24 hours ago; however, something in her told her Miku could be trusted. Since Miku had told her about her upbringing, Neru had thought about it and decided that maybe Miku might understand her. Neru was still cautious however. But then again, did she really have anything to really lose anymore these days?

Neru brought up her chat window on her laptop and quickly saw that Miku was actually on right now, by luck it would seem.

"Hey, Miku." Neru typed quickly and as efficiently as she normally was.

"Oh, Neru. How are you doing? Didn't expect to talk to you on here tonight." Miku replied a moment later.

"I'm okay; it's just kind of boring around here." Neru wrote back, trying to lead the conversation in a way that wouldn't tip Miku off that she was feeling lonely.

"Not really anything, just kind of scooting around online." Miku replied after a couple of minutes.

"It's kinda quiet right now; there isn't anything on TV either." Neru started, continuing her ruse before popping the question. "You wanna hang out or something?"

"Sure I don't mind, you just want me to come over to your room? I heard you complaining how your feet were hurting again after dinner, so I won't make you come over here." Miku quickly answered.

"Yeah, they are. My door's unlocked so you can just come in." Neru responded. It took a couple of minutes, but before long there was a knock at Neru's door followed by the teal-haired girl popping her head in.

"Hey." Miku exclaimed, before opening the door all the way and coming in after seeing that it was still clear to come in.

"Hey." Neru replied, closing the lid on her yellow laptop and setting it aside, leaving well enough room for the petite tealette to sit or lay on the bed.

"So, Neru. What do you want to do?" Miku asked, a smile on her face as she sat down on Neru's bed beside the girl.

"I'm not really sure." Neru replied, before observing the pendant on Miku's neck. After finding the pendant, Neru figured it might as well be a good place to start. "I suppose we could talk. Where did you get that pendant?"

"Oh, this?" Miku exclaimed, lightly handling the locket still around her neck. Neru nodded slightly in response.

"Ah, well. When were at the mall today Len and I went by that one jewelry outlet I saw it in the case there." Miku explained before checking for Neru's reaction, trying to see how she might react to the circumstances of Miku obtaining the pendant. "I didn't have enough money on me though, but Len offered to get it for me. It was a gift from him."

"Oh, that was nice of him." Neru remarked, noting that Len was being unusually bold with that move. "I guess it looks really cute too, so I suppose you both picked right."

"Meiko thought it was too." Miku added. "Do you have much jewelry Neru?"

"Not really…I have a watch, I guess, if that counts." Neru replied.

"I suppose it can, I didn't think you had much of an interest in jewelry." Miku remarked. "Do you like any kinds?"

"I kinda like citrine gems." Neru revealed.

"Oh, really? Why don't you have any then?" Miku asked as she leaned back onto the bed from where she sat.

"I really haven't thought about it much. Plus I never really had any jewelry as a kid either." Neru replied, as she shifted herself.

"Huh, why's that?" Miku requested, sitting back up from her lean.

"Um, well." Neru began, hesitating to reveal yet another choice piece of information. After a second though, she replied, albeit quietly, and in a much weaker manner than she would have normally voiced a sentence. "Well, we never really had any money to get anything."

"Oh." Miku muttered, sensing the change in the mood. "I'm sorry if I stumbled upon something. Do you want to talk about something else?"

It took several seconds for Neru to respond to this. "No, it's fine." She weakly replied. However, even with the acknowledgement the prevailing silence in the room returned and for nearly four minutes nothing was said, almost to a point to where Neru herself almost lost the battle to keep from expressing a large amount of emotion point-blank into the taller girl besides her.

"Do you mind if I ask you how your childhood was…Neru?" Miku softly asked, leaning towards Neru ever so slightly. Once again a silence prevailed, and Miku was about to retract her question before Neru quietly began to reply.

"Me…and my mom, we lived in a small apartment. Somewhere in the older sections of Kyoto. My dad…was never around." Neru began, pausing a couple of times during her story, but also gaining a considerable tone of anger in her voice as she went on. "My mom took care of me, but we were never did well. She worked three jobs just for us to stay there in that shit-hole apartment, and even if my dead-beat dad ever did anything besides come back and molest my mom every couple of months, he certainly never sent any help."

"Wow." Miku voiced, looking down, a similar action to that being done by Neru herself.

"I didn't have any friends; the rest of our block was full of middle-aged, single, office-working drunkards, not a single kid for a kilometer except me." Neru continued, starting to visibly tremble as she obviously prepared for the next part.

"School was hell, even though I did well in grades. I was the poor girl in class, I was never wearing the newest stuff, I was lucky if I was wearing anything new at all. Sometimes I'd have to wear something my mom had had to repair. They gave me the nickname 'Patches' because of it." Neru explained trembles now apparent in her voice. Before Miku could respond to her though, she continued.

"One day, the 'cool girls' cornered me outside of school, I was only doing the shopping that day. I was only ten, they were older, but nothing seemed to stop them." Neru began, tears now falling from her eyes which fell to the blanket below, which was the only sign of the action for Miku, because of Neru's bangs that had fallen and blocked the view of her face.

"They tore at the clothes I was wearing, they wouldn't stop. The only thing that finally stopped them was because a woman finally must have seen them. They ran away. I couldn't even see the woman I was crying so hard. I could only tell she had extremely long black hair. She helped me home, but she left me once we got to the door to our apartment building. I've never saw her again. I didn't care at that time, I was only glad to be able to return to my mom. I spent almost the whole night crying to her." Neru explained, the tears now streaming from her face.

"Wow." Again was the only thing that Miku was able to come up with. "What happened after that?" Miku asked as Neru looked up revealing her face.

"I-I don't know. Maybe the woman recognized them and told someone, because they never bothered me again. Not that the rest of the school didn't." Neru replied, as she tried to wipe the tears away from her eyes in a vain attempt to compose herself. However, instead of trying to help Neru to compose herself; Miku finally leaned in and wrapped her arms around the quivering girl, an action which the girl quickly reciprocated.

"Three years later, after school our manager was standing outside my house we I got back." Neru began, breaking up even more. Miku sensed where this was going.

"He had my favorite stuffed animal, a small cat…I still have it. He had it and he knelt down to me after he caught me. H-he took his sunglasses off so I could see his eyes. He told me he was my mom's friend for a long time, and that he was called here because it was m-…my mom's will that he should take me if she were to die." Neru continued. "He-he told me…that my mom had died, that she wouldn't be there anymore. I asked him why not and where she was. He didn't pull any punches…my mom had been killed, and had been thrown into the river near my house. The only reason the police knew…was because someone had seen her being taken, and the police got there… as they dumped her. They weren't able to find her body...No one came to the private funeral. It was me, Takeda, and an empty fucking pedestal with pictures of her." Neru explained, continually taking breaths and crying throughout.

Now, for several minutes, Neru refrained from talking, as did Miku. Miku didn't want to interrupt Neru if she had more to say, and Neru didn't want to continue to recall her hurtful past, even then she didn't even know where to start. However, eventually someone had to speak up, and after Neru had settled down a bit, Miku once again spoke up.

"How well did you get along with your mom?" Miku softly asked.

"W-we were very close. She wasn't just a mom to me, she was also my only friend growing up. For all eight years of my public schooling I sat alone at lunch. She was always looking out for me, making sure I was cared for the best she could give. She used to help me with the loneliness, she'd let me sleep in her bed on nights when it got really bad. Imagine it…a ten-year-old girl with knee-length blonde hair, cuddling up to a woman who could really look like the girl just sixteen years older." Neru replied, a small, forced chuckle slipping out; her eye's still stained with tears.

"Sixteen years older? Your mom was just sixteen when she had you?" Miku asked, shocked.

"Yeah, she moved in with my dad after her parents disowned her when they found out. However, things between my parents spiraled out of control, by the time I was born; my dad was an alcoholic with little regard for her or me." Neru replied.

"What happened to him?" Miku asked.

"Someone shot him, just a few days later. At that point I could only think about how he deserved it, if my mom had to die, at least he did too." Neru coldly explained, causing Miku to shiver.

"I always kinda wondered why you were so distant for that first month you were here. You almost always are, but that first month you were really bad." Miku recounted. "It was really hard for me just to leave you alone when you looked so hurt."

"I know, and you still went forward with things. I still remember you bringing me that daisy that you picked, God; I was so mean to you then." Neru lamented. "I remember that you didn't speak to me for a few days after that."

"Yeah, I didn't know what to say or think back then." Miku replied, some tears coming to her eyes now.

"I'm sorry about that. I bet it kept you up most of the night didn't it?" Neru asked, drawing a quick nod from Miku. "God, I'm sorry" Neru apologized before leaning over and hugging the tealette who reciprocated the gesture.

"What about your father Miku?" Neru asked, a couple of minutes later. Drawing a confused "Huh" from Miku. "I mean, you asked about mine. And you didn't mention him when you talked about your childhood yesterday."

"Oh, well…My dad was never around." Miku began. "**Truly** never, not came around once in a blue moon. I've never met him, and I really don't have any intention of doing so either." She continued, the slightest hint of an intense anger buried deep in her voice.

"So he left your mom too. At least he left you and your mom to be." Neru replied. "Sounds like you're not too fond of him either way."

"No, I'm not. He was one of the reasons that my mom and I had to move so much. If he had been around, we could have stayed in one place." Miku explained. "My mom and him worked together, but when they separated, the group dissolved and my mom had to find jobs where she could."

"Ah." Was all Neru could say, finding that it made a lot of sense.

"Do you still feel really lonely on some nights, Neru?" Miku asked, shifting the topic a small bit.

"Yeah…" Neru admitted. "And it's been a lot worse recently."

"My mom hasn't visited in a long while, so I do too." Miku explained. "However, is there anything I can do to help you through it?"

"Ah…" Neru voiced, startled. "N-no not really. I couldn't ask you to do that for me." She forcibly replied, blushing slightly.

"It's okay Neru, I'm fine with it. If it helps you feel better than I'd like to help you. It might help me too." Miku hastily replied, leaning in towards her friend and taking her into a single-armed embrace.

"I…uh, then. Would you mind sleeping with me?" Neru asked, however she immediately realized the innuendo in her words, causing to blush and immediately try to explain the meaning of her past sentence. "I-I mean would you mind sleeping in my-"

"I know what you mean Neru, and sure I don't mind." Miku replied, giggling a small bit at the rare sight of an awkward, blushing Neru. "Whenever you need me too."

"T-then would tonight be…okay?" Neru asked, continuing to blush wildly.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Miku replied, stepping off the bed, but not getting up. "I'll go get changed, alright?"

"Alright." Neru responded, giving the tealette all the indication she needed to slip off the rest of the bed, and leave the room.

'_What the hell just happened?'_ Neru asked herself. Within about an hour she and Miku had shared intimated details of both of their lives. However, unlike the last times that she recounted the tail of her childhood, all to herself, somehow Neru fell okay. To be honest with herself, it felt good to finally get the story out to someone, someone who actually seemed to care.

Neru knew that she would have cursed herself out over such events, however, now it didn't seem to matter. Finally being able to talk to someone was incredibly relieving. Almost orgasmic compared to the bullet wound pain of holding the information in for the past four years.

Looking over to the clock, Neru found it to be about ten, a little early for her normal bedtime, but it was about the time the rest of the house went to sleep; excepting Neru herself, and Gumi. It didn't matter much though, when Neru closed her eyes to test her fatigue she immediately felt the want to fall asleep; it seemed crying her eyes out to Miku had tired her quite a bit.

However, before heading to bed, Neru still had to attend to her teeth, and her bladder was giving her enough of an indication to warrant attention.

Getting up, Neru found that despite a four-hour rest her feet still hurt rather badly as she stood on them. Quickly she walked to the door, and opened it before stepping outside of the room. Immediately she ran into Miku on her way out.

"Oh, Neru. Where are you going?" Miku asked, she was wearing her normal, pink ensemble of sleepwear.

"I just need to go brush my teeth and use the toilet." Neru explained, beginning her walk towards the upstairs bathroom.

"Oh, I've got to as well, I just stand outside while you do." Miku replied, following Neru to the entrance of the bathroom.

"You can come in too, I don't mind." Neru explained as she turned on the light.

"Alright." Miku voiced, following Neru into the bathroom. Immediately, Neru went to the toilet and immediately pulled down her bed shorts and underwear before sitting down to relieve herself. Meanwhile, Miku tried not to look in that direction as she began to brush her teeth, just like Luka and Neru had done the night prior. After a minute or two, both of them switch places. Though, Miku was far more conservative as she pulled down her sweatpants to sit down on the toilet.

Returning to Neru's room, they both choose a side of Neru's bed before crawling up on it. Neru's mind, however, was beginning to race with the prospects of possibly having someone close to her again.

"H-hey Miku?" Neru said, breaking the relative silence between them, after they had gotten into the bed and turned off the solitary table lamp.

"Yeah, Neru?" Miku replied, turning around to face Neru.

"Would you mind if we…" Neru began, however, found herself unable to finish her sentence. Either way, it seemed that Miku seemed to understand.

"Cuddle together?" Miku said, finishing her sentence. Causing Neru to nod vigorously. Miku then opened her arms to Neru, who eagerly shifted towards Miku allowing her to envelop Neru in her arms.

**Line Break 15**

That night Luka went to bed around 9:30, as early as she could have possibly gone to sleep with her mountain of responsibilities. Even though Neru had helped her with the bathrooms, there was still plenty of cleaning that needed to be done. Not that Luka wasn't happy that Neru had stepped in, she couldn't be since she passed out she would have had to do the bathrooms as well if Neru hadn't helped.

Still, to say that it was weird that Neru was cleaning anything was an understatement. It was completely distant from the expected character that was the Neru everyone saw. What's more interesting is that Neru seemed to do a rather brilliant job of cleaning the bathrooms as well; up and to the point where the other members of the house were remarking how Luka must worked extra-hard this weekend.

It honestly started Luka thinking about her smaller comrade. She looked at Neru and found an angry, cynical, outer shell; but it seemed that under it, Neru seemed to at least have a heart. How much of a heart though, was open to debate.

While she cleaned the dishes that the house had used during dinner, her thoughts repeatedly returned to what Miku had explained to her the previous night. That Neru really wasn't as bad a person as they thought.

"_But I'll suffice it to say that's she just really afraid of being left." _Luka recounted. A lot of things started to make sense once that was applied to the situation.

The pranks were just to keep people away, now that Luka applied Miku's revelation; Neru suddenly had no intentions to hurt anyone, nor had anyone been hurt in them in the past, which supported the claim. Her continuous sarcasm, cynicism, and general hostility now became a deep guise to keep anyone from getting too close. Now that the revelation was applied, Luka couldn't hate the person that Neru was, on the contrary, Luka began to pity the girl.

Nonetheless, Luka still had to take Miku's information with a sizable ten pound bag of salt. Miku could be wrong; she could be lying as well, although Luka doubted the latter. In all honesty, it would seem that the best thing to do would be ask Miku more about what she knew.

However, Luka would put that off until tomorrow, as she had no intentions of getting up once again.

**Line Break 16**

The morning met Miku much more content than she normally was; which was saying something considering the teenaged tealette was pretty much an all-day person, content at all waking hours of the day. She now lay next to Neru, who was still sleeping very peacefully despite Miku breaking their night-long embrace.

Still while she was content, Miku's mind was still fuzzy from just having come out of her sleep. She continued to stare at the ceiling as her wits slowly came to her and she was able to start thinking about her day.

First she thought about making breakfast, it was Sunday however, she'd only have to make for herself today. A bit of Ramen sounded nice, plus it was easy and quick to make, something Miku liked the idea of right now. Second of all, she began to tackle the mound of ideas and points left in her mind from last night's talk with Neru.

She never expected the smaller girl to have such a tragic backstory, let alone one that could qualify for a full movie plot. A good-for-nothing father who ran out, a mother worked herself to the bone, the unfortunate daughter caught in-between that, and a world that didn't understand her hardships. Miku next began to wonder if Neru had exaggerated her tale, but couldn't find a reason for her to do so, in fact, considering how stand-offish Neru was normally only led her to conclude it would be more likely that Neru **understated** her story.

It wasn't even close, the world that Miku had to compare to Neru's. She could only imagine how much more of lonely, depressive existence that the blonde had had compared to her own experiences. Not that Miku's childhood was all bad, it wasn't the best it could have been, but it wasn't bad. Her mom wasn't there as often as she liked, and she wasn't able to keep many friends as they moved around, but Miku didn't find herself hating how she grew up. But on the other hand, she didn't see any reason why Neru wouldn't or shouldn't hate her youth.

Growing up without a dad, Miku could sympathize. Having one that came back to 'molest' her mother occasionally? Miku couldn't relate to that, nor could she really relate being bullied at school. True, Miku didn't live the most popular life in school, but she wasn't on the complete other end as Neru had described herself. Her mom made a decent enough amount of money to support them, but again, she had to travel to keep it coming in. It seemed that the only thing that Miku had over Neru was that Miku actually had friends she had to leave behind every couple of months.

Miku sighed out loud before she sat up; afterwards glancing over at Neru's alarm clock only to find that it was still blinking from whenever the power had went out last. However, by the way the sun was coming into Neru's window she surmised that it was probably around seven or eight.

Getting up from the bed, Miku took extra care to make sure that she didn't wake up the sleeping girl besides her. Slowly she made her way to the door and made one more glance at the sleeping blonde before she departed the room. Making her way down the hallway she entered her room before sitting down on her own bed.

Hearing about Neru's struggle made Miku at least want to do something for her. Sure Neru had asked to be with Miku last night, but Miku couldn't say she didn't want the same. The nights for her also got lonely, and it had been almost a year since her mother had visited her.

Maybe something for her birthday? Miku could definitely give her something for her birthday, something small so that it didn't unnerve Neru while it was disguised as an obligatory gift. Then again…

'_When is Neru's birthday anyway?_' Miku wondered. _'If it's not even close I think it would be best to make it a Christmas present…even that's pretty far, though…'_ Miku picked herself up before walking over to her calendar, and starting to search through her it.

'_Well…it's not in October, I suppose I can be thankful for that…'_ Miku thought after she quickly browsed through the writing on the cat-themed calendar. She then flipped to the next month and repeated the same gesture there. _'It's not in Nove…'_ Miku began to think as she was about to change the month once again, however, as she started her eye caught something. Up in the left corner, on the first of the month, was Neru's name.

'_W-wait it's the first?_' Miku asked herself, dropping the November page and allowing it to resume hanging straight down. _'B-but that's a week from now!'_ Miku realized, now shocked. However, after double and triple checking, there was no mistake.

Sighing once again as she sat down on her bed, the question now came to what a proper present was for the occasion. But then Neru had already answered that question last night, hadn't she?

"_I kinda like citrine gems."_ Miku recounted. Hearing the revelation once again in Neru's voice.

**Line Break 17**

Luka woke up feeling much better than the night before, it seemed that her fever had broken at some point during the night. It wasn't that she still didn't want to be asleep, but due to other pressures she figured it wouldn't have been possible to stay asleep anyway. Which eventually turned to out to why Luka was here now, lazily sitting on the couch in the living room and watching the weather half-heartedly.

It wasn't the most exciting of programs in the world, but it was better than the shopping channel's sale on bras that was going on today, and far less tempting. Then again, the hosts seemed to be having a fun time at their job, joking with each other in weird ways that Luka only caught the essence of, and only in enough time to utter a small chuckle to herself.

However, the cast for this morning's broadcast was rather weird, an African-American man, and a pair of American-looking people of both genders. Luka couldn't figure out why they'd be hired to do the weather in Japan, but then again, that's why she didn't work in television.

Luka lazily checking the clock, finding that it was just a little after eight. It would probably be an hour or so before the rest of the house was going to wake up, Sunday being the one day of the week they all traditionally sleep in. However, there was some activity, Luka had heard a door open earlier, and quickly attributed the noise to Miku, the only other person who would be up this early.

"Hey, Luka." Miku called, causing Luka to jump of her seat and out of her morning stupor.

"H-Hey Miku." Luka hastily replied, sitting up straight in the seat of the couch.

"Sorry, to startle you." Miku said, coming down the rest of the stairs and to the right side of the couch, opposite to Luka.

"I-It's fine." Luka replied, then she noticed that Miku was fully dressed; wearing a purple, long-sleeved top and a pair of jeans. "What are you doing dressed this early in the morning?"

"I forgot to pick something up at the mall yesterday, so I figured I'd go get it this morning." Miku explained.

"Okay." Luka replied, finding the occurrence odd, but not questioning it. "By the way, I want to talk to you later tonight about a couple of things."

"Oh, alright…I suppose it's about Neru, huh?" Miku surmised, after thinking for a couple of seconds. "I never did get to talk to you again about her."

"No, you didn't." Luka replied, resettling on the couch by turning and lifting her bare feet onto the middle cushion.

"Well, then. I don't mind too much then. So…your room around eight?" Miku offered.

"Sure, I don't have a problem with that." Luka replied.

"Alright then." Miku said, pausing for a few seconds to think of anything else that needed to be addressed before speaking again. "Then I'll be off then."

"Have a safe trip then." Luka replied, returning her attention to the TV as Miku passed, causing the tealette to also look up. However, now that Luka was slightly more awake something seemed off now; and it was Miku who found the problem.

"Huh, I didn't know we got English channels in Japan."

**Line Break 18**

Neru woke up feeling slightly lonelier than she was last night when she fell asleep, even from second one; Neru could sense that she was alone in her room. However, as the seconds ticked by and her brain caught up to her, she figured that Miku had probably woken up far before she had.

Lifting her head up, she found that it was still particularly early to wake up. Though, she couldn't place exact the time by sight of the light coming through her window. Still, Neru didn't find herself minding getting up this early, in fact she didn't feel too bad right now at all. It seemed a bit easier to breathe this morning, a credit to the old saying "to get something off your chest." Though the relief was far from life changing, it was enough to get Neru to wake up on the right side of the bed this morning, something that didn't happen all too often.

After stretching her arms out, Neru then swung her legs over to the side of the bed, stretching them as well as she reached out for her cellphone to turn it on. As she slid down onto her feet, Neru found that her feet only ached very slightly, another happy note to the day. It seemed today would be okay, if only for the morning.

**Line Break 19**

By noon all of the members of the Vocaloid house had woken up and were lazily going about their Sunday lives. Sunday was the day of relaxation in the house and everyone, including Luka, got into the spirit to just laze about this one day of the week. Nothing spectacular had happened up until about three in the afternoon. Though, the house held its breath slightly for the return of the Blonde hellcat that was currently Rin Kagamine.

Finally, though as three rolled around on the clock. Rin came through the front door of the residence; however, she looked well relaxed in comparison to her look the morning just two days prior. When asked about her current attitude, or lack thereof, she quickly replied to Luka that she and her friend had had a "wonderful time", and promptly went up to her room after excusing herself.

After that the rather mundane attitude of the day continued through the day and into dinner. Nothing was really out of the ordinary, or what could be deemed within reason of ordinary in the house.

Teto decided to drop by for just over a quarter of an hour, bringing with her all of the associated mayhem that was attributed to her beliefs, besides the fact that she also brought with her another, unfeasibly tall, woman named Ruko Yokune. However, they both left shortly after Ruko had been introduced to the Vocaloids

**Line Break 20**

Gumi's night wasn't going that bad after dinner. However, it wasn't like she had much to do. The recent lull in the games being released was what was currently causing her twirl around in her computer chair while she looked up her ceiling.

'_Of course, all of the shops around here have to close around 7, the ones at the mall yesterday had nothing of interest either'_ Gumi thought to herself as she tilted her head down to catch the time from her computer's clock, finding that it was already around 7. _'The fact that there's nothing on TV either on Sunday doesn't help either…even on the English channels.'_

Bored would be one way to describe Gumi's current mood. She literally found nothing to do right now. She didn't even feel like her normal lull pastime of playing with herself, mainly because she had done it too recently to even feel the want to.

'_Could probably wander around the neighborhood for a bit…get outside and walk around for a while.' _Gumi thought, before stopping her spinning and getting up to walk over to her window. She found it to be somewhat light out still, not quick dark but a little past the time most parents would call their kids in. _'I'll go to sleep early tonight as well.'_

Before Gumi went out though, she'd have to get changed. The lazy Sunday afternoon served little to get her out of a pair of shorts and a simple tank-top.

After opening her closet, Gumi promptly undid the button to her shorts before allowing them to drop to the floor below her revealing a lack of underwear, a normal choice for the green-haired girl when she was simply lounging about. The lack of underwear though was the first thing rectified by the girl as she donned a simple red pair before grabbing a pair of loose-fitting jeans. Then, after she equipped herself with a simple pair of socks, she grabbed a black sweater to cover her top-half from the brisk October air.

After grabbing her cellphone she exited her room she went left to find the stairs and as she did she found something rather odd. The bathroom that was next to the stairs had someone using the shower in it. Not that it was rare for the shower to be used in this bathroom, but no one usually took one around this time. However, for all intents and purposes, it was still trivial and Gumi didn't even pause in her step while she thought about it.

When she found herself upon the landing of the stairs Gumi took a right, bypassing the living room and going towards the main entrance to house in the kitchen. As she went through the kitchen, Luka, who was still washing dishes from dinner called out to her.

"Hey Gumi, where are you going." Luka asked, only looking away from her work for a couple of minutes.

"I'm just going out on a walk, not much else to do right now." Gumi replied as she moved past the older woman and into the entrance where everyone's shoes were kept.

"Ah, alright. Just don't go for too long of a one, I hear it's supposed to get down to two degrees tonight." Luka warned, turning her attention completely back to her dishes.

"No problem, I'm just going around the block." Gumi said, after she slipped on her shoes and before opening the door and stepping out.

Even as she stepped out Gumi realized that it was already much colder than she had expected it would be. Still, with the threat of complete boredom waiting for her inside should she chicken out the woman decided to continue her walk. Besides, if she got really cold on the walk it always meant a relaxing evening spent warming herself under her blanket. That was one thing Gumi always missed during the summer.

'_Still doesn't help the fact that it's cold though…'_ Gumi thought to herself as she pushed of the front porch and made her way down to the driveway. Turning onto the sidewalk, Gumi continued her thoughts.

'_I suppose it'll snow before long. That wouldn't be too bad though. Of course, I'd be driving in that mess, and it always seems like half of Japan shits itself and forgets how to drive when just a single flake of snow hits their car.'_ Gumi though, just before she exchanged waves with a small girl from across the street.

'_Ah, there goes Hijiri. I hope her family's doing well, though if you live in this neighborhood you'd need to be pretty well off already…" Gumi continued as she rounded the corner of the street. _

'_Still one can't be careful with money right now. Now that the States are having troubles the rest of the world seems to be slowing down as well. And of course we've been in a 'depression' for what Ten, twenty years now? Is it really a depression anymore at that point, or are we just shitty at doing things?'_

'_But I suppose the world doesn't run on my judgment does it? It'd be pretty cool if it did; first thing I'd outlaw are game stores that close before midnight. Then I'd make then get rid of those ridiculous censorship laws. I hate having to wait two weeks for someone to release and un-censor patch every time I buy a new girl game.' _Gumi though before rounding yet another neighborhood corner.

'_I mean really, who do they think they're protecting? They already require you to be eighteen to buy them; if you haven't seen a pussy or dick by then, especially in this day and age, there's no hope for you. That's what sex-ed's for right? To get you ready for when you see the shit, right? Well, then erotic games could be considered intellectual, and they shouldn't be censored then, should they?'_ Gumi rounded another corner in the block before she sighed and continued on her internal monologue.

'_Eh, who am I kidding though. The world wouldn't listen to me, that'd be too far convenient. I'd still have opposition anyway, with a lot of society still wanting to appear clean and virgin. I still fail to see what the hype about being a virgin is about, the only reason I'm still one is because I haven't found anyone worth screwing around with. The only thing being a virgin did to me was make me best friends with my left hand.'_

'_Not that that's all a bad thing, as far as I know a hand wont cheat on you, or have an extramarital without your consent and come back to you with an STD.' _Gumi continued on, finally rounding the last corner of the neighborhood.

'_Still, your hand can only do so much for you. It's no second person." _Gumi mused, allowing her mind to fall silent until she reached the driveway of her home.

'_It would be nice to have someone to be with, if only to stave off boredom when I don't have anything better to do.'_ As she stepped onto the porch Gumi took one last look out into the night and then up. It was darker than when she began, obviously, and a bright moon was clearly visible with thousands of stars. _'Why is it always the coldest when there's a full moon out?'_

After opening the door and stepping inside, Gumi immediately felt the warm air of the house against her exposed skin, causing her to realize exactly how cold she had gotten during her short walk around the block. She shivered a little as she slipped her shoes off and half-heartedly kicked them into the entryway-adjacent closet. As she stepped into the kitchen found Luka had finished the dishes, and was now drying the counter around the sink.

"How did your walk go?" Luka asked, only turning away from her work for a second to see who had entered.

"It was cold enough, that's for sure." Gumi replied, as she removed her sweater, in order to remove the cold material from her skin.

"I'd imagine, it's getting dark and with how cold it's supposed to be tonight…" Luka replied, finishing up with her cleaning of the counter as she hung the towel over the handlebar of the stove.

"Anyways I suppose I can see how cold it is out there…" Luka muttered, pointing despondently at Gumi's chest, causing the younger woman to look down on herself.

"Ah, yeah, I suppose that's one way to tell." Gumi replied laughing, as she found obvious bumps in her tank top. "Still, it was rather relaxing; just cold."

"Yeah. So do you have any plans for the rest of the night?" Luka asked, going towards the living room with whom Gumi followed.

"No, not really. Maybe I'll watch a movie and head to bed early tonight. I think I'm going to head out to a game store tomorrow morning, pick up some little game or something." Gumi replied, splitting from Luka as they neared the entrance of the living room and the foot of the stairs.

"Well, maybe you'd like to stay down here and watch something with me and Miku, she's supposed to be coming down in a little while." Luka offered, sitting on the armrest on the couch in the living room.

"Um, yeah, that actually sounds nice. I'm going to change into to some more comfy clothes though, if that's fine with you." Gumi replied, putting her foot up on the first step of the stairs.

"Sure, actually that's perfect, if you want to do that, then if you would mind knocking on Miku's door and telling her that I'm done with the dishes that would be great." Luka explained.

"Yeah, I'll do it for you." Gumi replied as she advanced up the stairs. As she reached the halfway point she heard a door open on the second level, specifically the bathroom door with how close it was to the stairs.

However, as Gumi reached the top of the stairs her ears caught the sound of a 'thwack', simultaneously there was a muffled crack, and it was followed quickly by a scream. Instantly, Gumi quickened her pace and flew rounded the railing of the stairs, just in time to see a figure dash to her left. However, the figure wasn't her concern, someone had been hit, and as Gumi came to the entrance of the bathroom she found Neru curled up and clutching her right arm. _'Shit.'_

"Someone help, Neru's been hit or something!" Gumi called out, kneeling down besides the girl who seemed to be preoccupied with not trying to scream out loud again. Immediately, Gumi could hear Luka start up the steps and from her left could hear several doors being opened in quick succession.

"Gumi what's going on? What happened?" Luka called out from the stairs.

"I think someone hit Neru with something; she's holding her arm pretty badly." Gumi yelled back, briefing Luka as she hit the top of the stairs and was able to make her way to where Neru was curled up on the floor.

"Oh, God." Luka muttered as she too knelt next to the fallen girl. "Neru you have to let me see it." Luka stated, tapping Neru on her side. Hesitantly, she took her right hand from her left arm revealing a small spot of blood on the yellow shirt she was wearing.

"Ah, fuck." Luka cursed under her breath before calling out. "Someone call an ambulance, she's bleeding."

Quickly, Miku dashed out from where she was standing in front of her room with her cell phone in hand. "What should I tell them is going on?" Miku asked.

"Gumi, you said someone hit her?" Luka asked quickly.

"Yeah, but I didn't get a look at who it was or anything that was used. It was a heavy hit though, I heard it clearly enough." Gumi replied, before cringing slightly. "I heard a crack too."

"That would make sense." Luka replied, before calling out to Miku. "Tell them that she got hit with something, we don't know what, she's likely got a broken arm, and she's bleeding."

At this point, Luka sat moved over, brushing Gumi, which caused her to stand up and back away a little bit. Luka then rested the blonde girl's head on her lap, trying to keep her calm. Gumi herself was worried, since Neru hadn't said anything since Gumi found her, and now she had a glassed look in her eyes. That very look was causing a certain amount of unsettling feelings in the green haired girl's stomach, and she was starting to feel nauseous.

"Hey, Luka. I gotta sit down. I'm not feeling well." Gumi explained averting her eye's from the fallen girl.

"That's fine, I might need you to help, but the ambulance should be here in a few minutes." Luka replied, as she began stroking Neru's hair.

"Sorry, is there anything else I can do?" Gumi asked, moving her eyes to a picture on the wall. It took several seconds before Luka replied.

"You know who did this…" Luka said. Gumi quickly surmised the meaning behind Luka's words.

"Since they ran off to the left of the stairs. That would limit it to me, the twins, and Miku." Gumi replied, drawing a nod from Luka. "Then again, even without that, it's pretty obvious who did it isn't it?"

"I want you to call Takeda, let him take care of it." Luka requested with a hint of a deadly chill present in her voice.

"I'll do that." Gumi replied, suddenly she heard the sound of an ambulance in the distance. Luka apparently heard it to as she picked her head up.

"Hey guys, they're on their way. They'll be here in a few minutes." Miku said, coming out of her room, still on the cell phone.

"Miku, do you mind coming with?" Luka quickly asked.

"Sure, just let me throw on something more suitable." Miku replied, running back into her room.

"Gumi, go let them in." Luka commanded, causing the green haired woman to start towards the stairs, and quickly descend them.

As she hit the landing of the stairs Gumi could hear the siren of the ambulance drawing near. And as she hit the kitchen she could see the lights from the vehicle casting from the driveway. As she came to the main door of the house she found the driver of the ambulance had already collected his bag and was coming over to the door. And as he stepped onto the porch Gumi opened the door.

"Um, Vocaloid…residence?" The man asked.

"Yeah, that's us." Gumi replied, quickly moving out of the man's way as he started into the house. "She's up on the second floor, take the stairs and they'll be on the right once you get into the main hall." Gumi explained, pointing to the stairs to help the man.

"And her name's Neru, right?" The man asked as he started across the kitchen.

"Yeah, it's Neru." Gumi replied, watching as the man advanced through the kitchen to the stairs before beginning the climb the second floor. At that point a woman came up to Gumi.

"So what happened here tonight?" The woman asked.

"Um, well, I guess I saw the most of it. All I know is I was climbing the stairs to the second floor when I heard her get hit; besides the kind of sound you'd expect I heard a crack as well. Then I saw someone dash over to my left and when I dashed forward I found Neru curled up on the floor." Gumi explained, as the woman listened intently.

"So you didn't see who did it?" The woman asked.

"No, but we have a fair idea who did." Gumi responded.

"Alright, and who would that be?" The woman continued, as she took out a small pocket notebook.

"Another one of our household, but we'll worry about that later, or rather we're going to let our manager take care of that." Gumi told her.

"Manager?" The woman asked, looking up from her notebook.

"Ah, were not related, this is kind of a communal home for everyone in the Vocaloi-" Gumi started to explain before the woman cut her off.

"Oh, you're those guys. We thought that 'Vocaloid' sounded weird as last name, but I thought it sounded familiar. Okay, that makes sense." The woman replied.

"Yeah, so after you guys take Neru we're going to call our manager and let him know what happened." Gumi explained.

"Alright, I suppose that's fine. I'm just going to need the name of your manager, and where I can call him at." The woman requested.

"Uh, sure. His name is Takeda Tadashi." Gumi began, fetching her cellphone out of her pocket and looking up his number, before presenting the address entry for the woman. "Take the second number on there, that's his office one."

"Alright, I've got it." The woman said, causing Gumi to put her cellphone back into her pocket. "So you said that you thought you knew the person who did this to…Neru?" The woman asked, unsure if she was recalling the right name.

"Yeah, it's Neru. I think we know who, or rather it's pretty obvious now." Gumi affirmed.

"Have they had problems together before?" The woman asked.

"Not really. Of course, Neru tends to play pranks on people, however, they're nothing real big to get mad about or anything; in fact, I don't think she's ever hurt anyone doing any of them. The other one, Rin, used to be a rather nice child, kinda shy; but recently, if you mind my language, she's turned into a little bitch. She'll pretty much call out anyone for anything these days, and Neru, if I'm reading this right, made the unfortunate mistake of pranking Rin a couple of days ago. Otherwise, they've been pretty neutral to each other." Gumi explained, the woman following intently.

"So nothing like this has happened before?" The woman asked.

"Oh, God no. No one's even had any kind of ambulance ride of any kind at all. At least that's as far as I know, although I've only been here a couple of months." Gumi replied.

"Alright, then." The woman said, before putting her notebook away. "I'm going to go check up on Neru then, and I'll give your guy's manager in a couple of days to see what happened because of this."

"Why do you need to give him a call?" Gumi asked, beckoning the woman to follow her.

"Just protocol, since it's an in-house domestic manner, I'd normally have a police officer follow this kind of thing up, but since you guys have a manager that you say will take care of it then I'll just call him.. I just have to wrap a report for this so if something comes out of it that information's there." The woman explained as she followed Gumi.

"Alright, I was just wondering. They'll be up the stairs and around the corner." Gumi said, leading the woman to the foot of the stairs before breaking off into the living room as the woman began to climb the stairs.

Sitting down on the arm rest of the couch, Gumi's mind was blank. She remained seated until the woman once again, came down to the first floor.

"She's doing okay, but she won't be walking out, so I have to get the stretcher." The woman explained as she went past, causing Gumi to reply a half-hearted "Alright."

While the woman was outside, Gumi made her way out through the kitchen and after opening the door stepped out onto the back patio. She mostly responded to the woman's questions on autopilot, she was still feeling nauseous and light-headed from before even though it had died down a little since then. She hoped that by stepping out for a few moments it would allow her to collect herself, even if Takeda would take care of a good part of it, it was still assured that the rest of the night would be tiring to say the least.

'_At least I don't have to worry about having something to do for the rest of the night.'_ She wryly joked to herself. _'You really can get what you ask for sometimes I suppose…'_

For several minutes Gumi remained on the deck, staring out at the stars, the moon had yet to come around to be apparent on this side of the house. However the door behind her suddenly jerked open, startling the young woman.

"I found her Miku." A voice called out, which Gumi quickly recognized as Luka's and that was confirmed when Gumi was able to turn around and face the woman. "Hey Gumi, we're going to set off for the hospital. Len's also coming with us. Have you called Takeda yet?"

"Ah, no I haven't, I was going to do it after you guys left." Gumi replied, still slightly flustered. "Is that alright?"

"Yeah, it is. I was hoping you'd do it after we left. Just make sure to do it soon, I haven't heard anything out of her room." Luka replied.

"Yeah, I do it as soon as you guys take off." Gumi said back.

"Also, Len was in Miku's room at the time of the incident so you can tell that to Takeda as well." Luka explained, while shifting her weight slightly

"Yeah, that'll help, he always wants to be sure of things, especially big things like this will be." Gumi responded.

"Otherwise, you're in charge; Meiko and Kaito are out at some bar and I couldn't get a hold of Gakupo to save my life, so he couldn't even come over to help you. Alright?" Luka said, her intonation warning that she was wrapping up the conversation.

"Yeah, I should be fine." Gumi replied.

"Alright, then I have to go; I'll call you later once I get word on what's going on with Neru, any update on your side can wait until then unless it's urgent." Luka stated, before leaving the doorway.

As soon as Luka left the doorway, Gumi soon followed, going through into the kitchen and looking out the window just in time to see the man from before get into the driver's seat of the ambulance. Within seconds the vehicle was reversing out of the driveway, and it was only seconds after that that it drove off down the street; this time without the siren or lights.

'_And just like that, my life's become complicated to all hell. I really should have just went to bed, huh?'_ Gumi thought sorrowfully, as she sighed. _'Well…I'm not getting any younger sitting here am I?'_

Getting out her cellphone, Gumi quickly navigated to her manager's address book page like before, but this time touched on the cellphone number. As it started to ring, Gumi couldn't help but amending her previous thought while she waited.

'_Well, probably anyway. Then again, if I continue saying that I might wake up a couple of years younger tomorrow…with the way this night is go-'_ Gumi thought, cutting herself off as she heard the phone connect on the other end.

"Hello?" A voice asked from the other end, instantly Gumi recognized the voice on the end as that of her manager.

"Um, Mr. Takeda?" Gumi asked making sure the man was with her. At this point she walked out to the semi-dim dining room

"Oh, Gumi. I didn't expect to hear from you tonight, especially this late at night." Takeda answered from the other end.

"Well, um, to tell you the truth I didn't exactly plan to call you tonight." Gumi replied, now awkwardly trying to figure out how to go about telling the news to her boss, something she now realized she should have done before making the call.

"Oh, so something's going on?" The voice from the other end responded, in the background one could her several things being shifted around. "Did someone want to sign you for a song?"

"Ah, no it's not something that's related to me exactly…" Gumi replied, sitting down in her chair in the dining room.

"What do you mean by that?" Takeda asked, at this point he lost the free intonation that he had had second ago, replaced by one that was more serious.

"Well, um, Sir. It's more about Neru, she got attacked." Gumi said, causing a pause before she finally got a reply.

"What do you mean attacked? Are you all okay now?" The man on the other end asked.

"No one else was, just Neru. I only just missed seeing who, but we think we know who did." Gumi explained.

"Who would that be?" Takeda asked, the shuffling of papers was apparent in the background.

"We think Rin did it." Gumi replied.

"You're sure? Do you have any proof?" Takeda requested, again the shuffling of papers was apparent in the background.

"Well, I was coming up the stairs; Neru was hit in front of the bathroom. I didn't get to see who it was but they ran to the left." Gumi explained, before pausing slightly, a pause Takeda used.

"And because of that the only ones rooming on that side of the house are you, Miku, Rin, and Len. I know it seems unlikely that Len or Miku did it, Rin certainly has been causing her fair amount of complaints around the house recently, but have you ruled them out as well?" Takeda asked, more or less pressing Gumi for more information rather than really asking the question he came out with.

"Len and Miku were both in Miku's room." Gumi remarked.

"I see…that's not totally conclusive, but I don't see why one would of them would have done it in the complement of the other. Neither of them holds anything against Neru either, not that a lot of people in the house seem to. Did Neru tell you who did it?" Takeda asked, again Gumi could hear the noise of papers being shuffled around.

"Uh, No. I think she was a bit to out of it. But Neru did pull a small prank on Rin earlier this week. However, since Rin returned with another one, albeit one that actually ended up hurting Neru, we figured it was over; especially since she spent a couple of nights at one of her friend's house." Gumi explained.

"That would definitely make Rin suspect to this wouldn't it?" Takeda asked, rather for rhetorical emphasis, than to ask a question. "Have you guys done anything about it? And I really should have asked earlier, how is Neru doing?"

"Luka just told me to call you, and to tell you what happened, and to let you deal with it. She and Miku are with Neru on the way to the hospital right now." Gumi replied.

"She had to go to the hospital…" Takeda muttered, an even deeper tone of seriousness present in his voice.

"Y-yeah" Gumi began after begin put off a little by Takeda's intonation of his sentence. "I think she has a broken arm or something."

"Alright." Takeda muttered. For several seconds nothing was spoken on either end of the line, until Takeda spoke up again. "Is Rin still there?"

"Yeah I think, we haven't heard anything from her since this happened. So she's probably still in her room." Gumi replied.

"Alright then, it's what…Eight twenty-three? I'll be there in fifteen minutes, to handle this." Takeda dictated. "Is there anything else you need, any quick groceries?"

"Ah, no Sir." Gumi rushed out.

"Relax Gumi. And please, I told you not to call me 'Sir'. It makes me feel old. Alright?" Takeda responded.

"Yeah, see you then." Gumi replied before the phone connection was cut out.

**Line Break 21**

Fifteen minutes later, just as he had said, Takeda walked through the front door. At over five-and-a-half feet tall, Takeda was obviously not Japanese. His hair and eyes were a consistent brown and he, like now, often wore a casual black business suit at all waking hours of the day. He had been in Japan ever since his parents had moved there over thirty years ago, and while they had moved back to the states several years prior, Takeda found the burgeoning and cutthroat industry of Japanese stars and idols exciting to manage in. The Vocaloid project was one of his biggest time-consumers, even though he had many others and several other people to help.

He immediately set a small watermelon on the kitchen counter before coming into dining room, where Gumi sat. However, in the fifteen minutes Gumi had apparently fell asleep in her seat after she had put her head down on her arms.

"Hey, Gumi. Wake up for me would you?" He asked in a soft voice while rubbing the dozed woman's shoulder. Slowly Gumi came too, and after rubbing her eyes quickly excused herself.

"Sorry Takeda, when I saw Neru like she was I started to feel a bit ill. I thought I'd rest my eyes for a few minutes, but I guess I fell asleep." Gumi explained.

"How is Neru, by the way? Did you get any word on her?" Takeda asked, sitting in the chair besides Gumi.

"I don't know. Last I saw of her she kinda looked like she was in shock, in both senses of the term. Of course, if you had your arm broken suddenly, I suppose anyone would be." Gumi replied.

"I suppose so. So there isn't any word on her right now?" Takeda asked, reiterating the second part of his earlier question.

"No, not at all. Luka said she'd give a call when she found out anything, and I wasn't supposed to call her unless it was urgent." Gumi replied relaying Luka's last words before she left.

"That's probably for the best; it wouldn't be good if her cellphone went off in the middle of something. Though it would be helpful if I could get ahold of her and she could ask Neru who did it." Takeda summarized. "How are you doing then, you mentioned the sight made you feel ill?"

"Uh, I guess I'm doing okay now, I suppose that nap helped to clear it up some." Gumi replied, shifting her weight slightly to lean on the back of the chair she was sitting in.

"That's good." Takeda said, before sighing and looking at the stairs. "So we're sure it's her?"

"I don't think it could have been anyone else, unless someone snuck into the house." Gumi replied.

"Still, I'd imagine that Neru knows. Whatever happened to her." Takeda supposed. "I'd hate to jump to a conclusion about this, even though it seems rather clean-cut."

"What do you plan to do then?" Gumi asked.

"Well, I think I'll wait around a while, see if Luka calls. I imagine she should within the next hour or so. If they take her to our hospital, that's only a twelve minute drive from here. I don't think they'd be very busy on a Sunday night so they might be getting her in and diagnosed her within about thirty minutes. Hopefully. If it takes any more than an hour, I'll call the hospital." Takeda explained, getting up. "I brought a watermelon with me, do you want any?"

"Oh, sure. Anyone in this house is always up for a watermelon." Gumi replied happily.

"I didn't get a big one; it was just going to be a snack when I got home." Takeda explained, as he got up and went towards the kitchen.

"It should be fine; the only ones who are here right now are you, me, and Rin." Said Gumi, as she got to up to follow him.

"I figured as much, no one else is down here. I suppose Len went somewhere then?" Takeda asked before grabbing the bag containing the watermelon and sliding said melon out of the bag.

"He went with Luka, Miku, and Neru." Gumi said, before catching the raised eyebrow Takeda gave her afterwards. "I don't know why. Otherwise Meiko, Kaito, and Haku are in their predictable places, and God knows where Gakupo is right now."

"That I figured." Takeda simply replied, fetching a large knife from the drawer and a couple of plates from the cabinet. He took the knife a swiftly cut into the small six-inch melon, dividing it into two pieces which he placed on a plate each. Takeda then opened the drawer next to the sink and grabbed out two spoons from their holder before dipping one spoon into each half-melon and handing one to Gumi who had taken a seat in one of the two barstools on the other side of the counter.

Gumi immediately began to take small scoops of the watermelon in front of her, a small smile on her face. Takeda soon joined her on the stool next to her after washing the knife and wiping up a small amount of the juice that had gotten on the counter.

"So what's been new with you?" Takeda asked after taking his first bite.

"Ah, not much, there haven't been any new games coming out so, I haven't been doing much recently." Gumi replied before taking in another spoon of the succulent watermelon she was digging into. "Mainly playing around with old game and things, I guess. If I had to name something."

"That's not always the worst thing." He replied, after taking a conservative bite of his own half of the watermelon.

"That's true enough, when you start going back through old games you start finding that things you never noticed before." Said Gumi in reply.

"Some pe-" Takeda began, before a low buzzing interrupted the conversation, immediately Gumi dropped her spoon into her watermelon before dipping her hand into her right pocket to pull out her cell phone. She quickly answered the phone, before putting it to her ear.

"Hello?" Gumi quickly stated, pausing to listen to the person on the other end. Just on the edge of his hearing Takeda could tell it was the phone call he was waiting for even before Gumi handed him the phone after answering the person on the other side with: "He's right here, I'll hand it over."

"Hey, Luka" Takeda voiced as the phone touched his ear, already assuming the person on the other end. A fact Gumi already knew. Immediately, Gumi touched off of her seat and meandered through the dining room and into the adjacent living room. Out of respect for both involved Gumi didn't want to eavesdrop into the conversation.

Chances were that Takeda was going to fill her in the with the details anyway, and knowing that Gumi wouldn't try to reconstruct the half of the conversation on Luka's end.

Alas, it didn't take long for Gumi's thesis to be proven correct when Takeda walked into the living room where Gumi had taken a seat after she had arrived. Instead of the talkative mood he had been in earlier though, Gumi could tell his mood had shifted as he handed her Grey cellphone back to her.

"Well, Luka said that Neru did have a broken arm, and better yet Neru had calmed down enough to think straight and mention that it was Rin who did it. Our mystery, if there was any to begin with, has been solved; the only remaining question is what she did it with. However, that can wait." Takeda explained as he leaned on his arm on the wall next to the couch where Gumi sat. As she spoke, Gumi could tell he was only summarizing, and that he was thinking deeply behind the brown-rimmed glasses that framed his face. It was a look normally reserved for the occasion when a contract signing was particularly troublesome.

"So what do you plan to do?" Asked Gumi a few seconds later, although Takeda had not moved from the spot he had leaned into.

"I think it's time I go see her." He announced, pushing himself of the wall. "It's probably best that you stay out of it for now." He stated as he began to walk towards and mount the stairs.

Takeda's advice was okay for Gumi however, she already had little want to get involved in the little blonde-haired psychopath's business; especially after what just happened a couple of hours prior.

Sure Rin's tension was thick enough to break the knife that would try to cut it, but Gumi couldn't think of why Rin would take such an extreme action against Neru. It was almost as if the girl was possessed to make such a bad choice; unless Neru did something to her again, which was unlikely as all hell due the repercussions of her most recent attempt at one. Neru was mean at times, but she definitely wasn't stupid.

Gumi sighed as she absentmindedly turned on the flat screen in front of her. Silently she began to pace through the channels, an action which soon proved futile, not that she expected any different on a Sunday night. Eventually she settled on a news channel for noise, more stuff on the H1N1 stuff that had been going around in other countries, but even that wasn't new anymore.

Gumi's thoughts soon started to amount as the news station went on in the background. Really, what had Rin wanted so badly that she would outright attack someone? Again, it seemed unlikely that Neru would have done something again so soon after what had already been done to her. Did Neru say something to her just beforehand to instigate the attack, or had Rin just stepped of the pier of crazy and into Lake Insanity?

After getting up from her seat on the couch, Gumi began to wonder on her feet, first going into the dining room. _'Honestly, I wonder what the hell's going on inside this house anymore, with everyone living around in the same place it kinda breeds tension at times. And Takeda said he's looking into even more people to add to the collection.'_ Gumi thought as she looked out the sliding glass door, noticing that the moon was now casting onto the deck a contrast to a half-an-hour earlier when it was dark, she then started to wonder past the fireplace, which lay on the wall of the dining area, and headed into the kitchen.

'_How many people is he thinking of though? We only have two more spare rooms here, and I'm fairly certain that Len's going to want to have his own room after this. No one wants room with someone that they think might attack them and now that she has...'_ Gumi continued inside her head as she crossed from the hardwood dining room floor the tile of the kitchen.

'_That would leave only one room left for someone. Then again, it's not like anyone's required to live here after they turn eighteen. Maybe he's going for some older singers?'_ Gumi asked herself rhetorically, before she came across the melon halves that Takeda had sliced.

'_Should probably wrap them up…' _Thought Gumi to herself before going through the drawers and grabbing two large plastic bags. For each side of the original melon Gumi took the spoon out of it and quickly put them into one of the bags, making sure to note which one was her's.

'_Heh, who knows, maybe he'll introduce someone I can get attached to.'_ Gumi chuckled to herself as she finished put her half of the melon in the bag, and then proceeding to put it into the refrigerator. She then put the other half of the melon on the island counter, so Takeda could grab it on the way out. _'It'd be nice if I could find someone my age in this program.'_

'_Other than being kinda lazy about it, what kind of freaks could there be out there? Especially nowadays, it's only every other week you here about another girl getting raped in a back alley, and with our profile I'd probably be more at risk for it than anyone else.'_ Gumi ruminated to herself, walking back to the living room while continuing her thoughts.

'_Though it's amazing I haven't got a lot of porn pictures drawn of me yet. I think it only took Miku a couple of days to garner enough pantyshot drawings to fill up a small album. Just goes to show you should never underestimate the power of a short skirt and some striped underwear to garner the attention of horny people the world over. Plus a little wind.'_ Continuing her musings, Gumi sat down on the couch as her thoughts continued to flow.

'_Maybe I should go for a little fan service? Might stir some interest up…Maybe a little cleavage?' _She thought as she looked down at her decent chest, before finally letting the notion drop in her mind; if only for her to pick up another one after noticing the time on the television. _'He's been up there for almost ten minutes now.'_

'_I wonder how long he'll be up there?' _Gumi thought as she swiveled her body around to lay out on the couch.

'_Then again, knowing Takeda, he'll want all the answers for it. Probably shouldn't expect the verdict too quick…I suppose I could rest my eyes for a bit, who knows what the rest of the night's going to be like.'_ Gumi supposed, closing her eyes for the while.

**Line Break 22**

"So what would possess you to do something like this?" Takeda probed, after finally getting out a Rin a confession for the most outright act of violence inside the house since it's founding.

"How can you not understand, that stupid bitch is always fucking around with anyone, and the she attacked me. All I did was get her back." Rin yelled, still standing from when Takeda confronted her fifteen minutes.

"Rin people go to jail for retaliation, just because she pushed you doesn't mean you get a free pass to shove her two days later or whenever you get around to it. Even if she did something of the magnitude you got done inflicting upon her. If it's that much of a problem then you get an authority involved, you know, **Me.**" Takeda explained exasperated at the young teen's apparent stupidity.

"That's why I'm here Rin, because the smart people called me instead of breaking **your** arm." He continued, before giving Rin a chance to mutter any sort of reply, not that what she could say would matter much, Takeda's mind was made up.

"So now you're calling me stupid." Rin yelled back immediately after being given the chance.

"Maybe I am, is your solution for that going to be to break my arm? The shear stupidity Rin." Takeda began, excessively accentuating this statement with hand motions. "The shear stupidity that your operating with her is just unreal. Even if I believed that she did something horrible to you, it's still not enough to justify **breaking someones arm**. This conversation was over before it started, because there is no reasonable defense to breaking an arm unless she was trying to kill you"

"And what if she was?" Rin yelled again, crossing her arms in defiance.

"Don't make me laugh Rin, it wouldn't help anyway. The verdict her clear. Collect your stuff, you're suspended and you're going to stay with your mom for a couple of months." Takeda revealed, instantly Rin's snooty mood pratfalled.

"W-what? There is no fucking wa-" Rin screamed, throwing her arms down.

"There is a way, and it's called you're going tonight. I know you hate going home, but maybe this'll teach you something. Furthermore you're lucky that I don't cancel your contract and send you home for good. Attacking another person? You had better believe that's a termination point in the context." Takeda yelled back in full force, the first time that he had used that volume tonight.

For the first time since he had started the conversation Rin was now speechless. Finally a moment later she hung her head before voicing a question. "How long?"

"I don't know right now, as many weeks it takes for her arm to heal, you'll spend twice that gone." Takeda replied. "Now get your stuff ready, I'm not happy about having to drive you out there tonight."

"F-fine." Rin replied, knowing there was very little she could do to change his mind. As she was getting a suitcase from the closet, Takeda took it in his power to leave; Rin was in her pajamas and would need to change after all. However, there was one detail that Takeda thought he should mention before leaving for the time.

"At this point I don't have any intention of revealing that you attacked someone as the reason that you're going to be gone; I plan to cite a personal vacation. However, if you make any trouble through this I'll go public with this." Takeda voiced before exiting the room.

**Line Break 23**

Next thing Gumi knew was she was being gently being shaken again, waking her from her light nap. Slowly she sat up on the couch to find Takeda out as the one waking her.

"Hey." Gumi muttered, letting him know she was awake enough to comprehend.

"Hey." He replied back while sitting down on the couch before going into his explanation. "I'm going to take Rin now, she's going to spend a couple of weeks at her mother's place."

"Alright, just a couple?" Gumi asked, rubbing her right eye a small bit.

"No, it'll likely be longer, but I'm going to wait for tomorrow to say anything more, in front of everyone." Takeda explained, getting off the couch as he saw Rin descend down the stairs.

"Okay, anything else I need to know?" Gumi asked, turning herself to follow Takeda's movement around the back of the couch.

"Not that I know of. Luka said that they'll probably be back around Ten, so that's in about…" Takeda replied before glancing at his wristwatch. "About half-an-hour from now." He then motioned for Gumi to follow them as he and Rin went towards the main entrance. As they passed the counter Takeda noticed the watermelon half left on the counter and picked it up before looking to Gumi for her confirmation that it was his; a query that Gumi quickly answered with a nod. As Rin worked on collecting her coat and boots. Gumi noted how quiet the teenager was.

"I'd stick around to see her, but the quicker I take her out there the earlier I get home; I still have to work tomorrow after all." Takeda explained while Rin slipped on the second of her shoes, leaving nothing more for her to collect for now.

"Alright, then. I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Gumi asked, shifting her weight.

"Yeah, tell Luka that I'll be around about…let's make it about four." Takeda replied pausing to check his mental calendar. Then, he changed focus to the smallest among them. "Let's go" He called to Rin, receiving a nod in return.

Soon, Gumi watched as Takeda's car left the driveway. It would soon be time for Luka and the others to get home. Honestly, Gumi wanted to get to sleep before long, hoping that she could slip into bed shortly after telling Luka about Takeda's upcoming visit.

Little did she know, nor little did anyone else know, besides a select few, what the next few years would bring.

* * *

><p>I know it might seem like a few couples are forming at this point, but I wouldn't count anything that way for a while, some of them mentioned are the ones that will be appearing throughout the story, but a lot of them aren't even apparent yet. Some of the characters haven't even been introduced yet. This will follow a real timeline (this chapter occurs in October of 2009, beginning on the 22nd) and so some of the characters won't even be introduced until later chapters later in the years. And even then some of the relationships might surprise you.<p>

As a final note. Most of the Vocaloids are scheduled for inclusion in my story. Even a lot of Utauloids, certain characters of the fan-made character-base, and a few OCs (But only enough to make the story more real). However, I **won't** be including some characters, for sure, including:

: Leon, Lola, Sweet Ann – I haven't had enough exposure to any of these three to nail down what could be an acceptable persona. They don't really have any official art either, so I can't build one from that either. In other words if I put them in, they would basically an OC, and for that price I might as well throw in an OC.

: VY1 – Should I need an explanation for this one?

: Any Blacklisted Utauloid – no chance, except if I need someone to get arrested in my story. (Blacklisted defined according to/listed on Utau Wiki)

If anyone wants to contest these un-inclusions, or if you want to suggest a Utau or fanmade, you can comment about it. I might change my mind. However, Piko comments will never be considered because his parent (Distributer) doesn't play nice with others.

As always reviews are nice, however, for this story flames will be donated to a local hedgehog rescue to help heat them through the winter.


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